No Need To Argue
by Sorrow Reminisce
Summary: On the day a massive air strike is launched upon Terminal City, Max searches amid the screams of the dying, for those she has come to regard as family. Some will walk from the ruins unscathed, but some will not... (M/A REVISED & NEAR COMPLETE!)
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note 2013: This story was my very first fan fic - my baby. Originally published here in late 2002, it was left hanging on the second to last chapter, much to the chagrin of readers who have asked me - even years later - for an ending! Unfortunately I had become stuck on the final chapter, and by the time I came back to it, I realised the whole thing needed refining. Dis-satisfied, I deleted the whole fic and reposted the revised edition. Still without that final chapter - until now!_

_Don't worry, the whole story isn't a songfic, but the lyrics to accompany this chapter is No Need To Argue by The Cranberries. It was this song which inspired the story in the first place. I strongly suggest you listen to the song as you read, just to really set the tone..._

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**No Need To Argue**

**by Sorrow Reminisce**

**ll l lll ll l lll**

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Max looked down at the body lying battered and broken before her.

_There's no need to argue anymore_

Time stopped. It seemed as if the world around her had fallen silent in grief. She felt the surrounding buildings close in on her like giant towering gods. Condemning her for causing this happen. Only vaguely aware of someone standing beside her, she felt her mind explode into pieces. Seems those missiles had gotten in there too.

_I gave all I could but you left me so sore_

Unable to cope with the pain of this loss, Max's mind recoiled against the emotional blast that ricocheted through her. Instinctively, she allowed herself to sink into the almost-comforting detachment that came of the military training she had undergone half her lifetime ago. Old habits die hard.

Allowing her body to switch into auto-pilot, she felt as if she were floating above everything, looking at life through a bubble. A part of life, but detached from it at the same time. Given the circumstances, she didn't want to feel anything ever again.

When a voice interrupted the silence, she was curiously aware to find her body turning to hug the person beside her. She even found words within the banks of her memory to soothe this person's anguish. Funny that she could give someone comfort when all she wanted to do was dig herself a hole and jump into it.

From her viewpoint above, Max watched as the other person then turned abruptly and left. Neither caring if she'd scared or simply sent him away, Max was just relieved he was gone.

The numbness which had enabled her bruised and battered body to come this far, had been phased out at last. Unable to escape the inevitable, the onslaught of emotions that come when you loose a love you didn't even know you had, Max stumbled forward. Collapsing under the weight of her sorrow at last.

Dropping to her knees, Max drew the body closer towards her until she was cradling it in her arms. Smoothing back the brown hair that had clamped to the blood-soaked brow, she leant forward and kissed the still-warm skin. Wishing she could kiss away the death that hung about her like a thick blanket of prophesised doom.

_And the thing that makes me mad is the one thing that I had_

As her lips pressed softly against the blood-soaked brow, Max drew in ragged breathes and the tears which she had so carefully held in check - all of her life it seemed - finally descended like a black cloud that had at last found release. Sobbing aloud, she drew away and shook the body in the near-hysterical hope of shaking out some signs of life, as waves of anguish drove into her, piercing her bruised and battered soul.

All the things she should have said, along with all the things she should never have said, crowded her mind; filling it to burst. A thousand ghosts howling at once, a thousand things she should have changed. A thousand sharpened spears of guilt driving into her as she rattled the lifeless body, hoping - praying even, that she'd be granted the chance to bring him back. So she could kick his ass one last time.

_I knew, I knew I'd lose you_

For hours Max had scoured the rubble that was left of Terminal City, searching for signs of life. At first, she had told herself she was looking for anyone. Everyone. But after passing so many bodies of those she had come to know and love - Dix, Luke and the numerous X-series and Nomolies who had sought refuge within these toxic grounds - her hunt became more frantic for one specific person. One person who she needed now more than ever. And he didn't even know she cared.

_You'll always be special to me_

Ignoring her own injuries, Max stumbled over the remnants of what she had come to know of as home. No longer did she see the bloodied bodies lying where they had fallen - or where they had been torn apart. Instead her mind flashed continuously to the past year. The times she had shared with the person whom she sought. The times that she had never appreciated until this day. And the moment when her entire world was ripped wide open and gutted by a series of blasts that no one had seen coming.

So much for friends in high places.

_And I remember all the things we once shared_

Looking back on it, the bickering that had gone on between them was like... terms of endearment. At least, she hoped he'd seen it that way. Though she had the uneasy feeling that some of her more cutting remarks had hurt far more than she could ever perceive. He was just good at deflecting her negativity. She shuddered at the thought that he could die without knowing the truth.

And with that shudder, followed another, brought about by the thought of having to go through life without ever again indulging in his light-hearted banter and the smart ass smile which had slowly but surely broken down her emotional defenses.

Somehow she had gone from a pain in the ass, to realising he was her comrade; her partner in crime. At some point during these past few months, he had wriggled his way into her heart and made himself at home, in that laidback 'I'm gonna bug you til you learn to love me' manner that only he had. And she'd been too damn stubborn to admit until now, he wasn't anything like the schmoe she'd made him out to be.

He didn't deserve the crap she'd thrown at him in the past. He didn't deserve half of what she'd put him was enough human in her to realise she had to let him know she was ready to admit he was a friend. Not the screw up she always made him out to be. She owed that to him. If nothing else.

_Watching TV movies on the living room armchair_

As she stumbled her way across rubble, too shocked and exhausted for her own catlike agility, Max reflected upon the time she'd spent an hour holed up with him in a closet. The events of that day had taught her a lesson she had only learnt too late.

Trapped in that confined space, with no choice but to listen to his incessant chatter, he had confronted her with the very same questions her own innate sense of reasoning had been trying voice. Questions she recklessly chose to ignore. "Tell me - tell me that he's worth all this trouble, Max. I mean, tell me how he... how he rocks your world. Something." She couldn't tell him anything of the sort.

But she remembered the way he made her feel as they waited that length of time for the guards to change shift. Well, asides from irritated, he made her feel... alive. He fired her up with his smart-aleck remarks and blatant honesty. He knew her better then she knew herself.

And with every moment that she spent in his company he reminded her that she was on this earth to LIVE. Not to merely exist. She needed him. With him, she had the chance to feel something more than nothing.

'Where are you?' She whispered to herself desperately as she stood atop a high mound of shattered buildings. Her enhanced vision searched the scattered chunks of concrete and steel that lay around her, and the crumbled buildings that stretched out before her. Here and there, the living struggled with the dead. Like her, searching for signs of life. The air was filled with the stench of burning. Max shuddered to think of what kind of matter formed the source of those mixed odours

The sudden sharp cry of a baby peirced the air, and Max turned to see Gem slipping on a piece of rubble and throwing out one arm to protect the baby she held in the other. As Max helplessly witnessed Gem struggle to regain her footing from afar, she felt yet another sharp needle of loss stab itself into her stomach. Dalton was nearly always at Gem's side - and he was no where to be seen.

_But they say it will work out fine_

Max stumbled on in the opposite direction. A voice within her whispered that she should be helping attend the wounded, gather intelligence, plan a way to defend themselves against further onslaught. Flee. But she could do none of these things. She had to find him, nothing else mattered. No one else mattered. Not even herself.

Not all had perished in the series of explosions that had ruptured the silence of early morning and thrown everyone's life into a frenzied battle against a force they couldn't possibly stand up to - the force of a missile attack by unfair enemies who rained death upon them from the skies.

Her people were strong. This was exactly what they were designed for. Warfare. But the transgenics were unprepared for this assault from above, and caught off guard. And soon the enemy would be sending in the infantry to finish where the missiles had left off.

_Was it all a waste of time?_

She had set these people 'free', not thinking at the time that her kind had never succeeded in their quest for freedom in the past. Since she had escaped with a small group of fellow X5's in '09, they had been constantly hunted. If not by those who created and trained them, then by a darker enemy.

The ones she had released from the blazing fire of Manticore had never shared Max's desire for independence. They had no prior experience in autonomy. The world can be a hostile place, especially towards that which it can't understand. And so rather then finding freedom, these people were hunted down like rabid dogs. Yet for all her talk of family sticking together, she had effectively turned her back on them. Maybe bailing one or two out of trouble here and there relieved her conscience for a while but truth be told, she was too wrapped up in her own personal drama to care about anyone else's.

She'd deserted Zack, and he'd given up his life for her. He had literally given her his heart and she had returned the favour by giving him a Manticore-style dose of electric shock treatment. Well, one small comfort was that at least he was probably safe. Where ever he was.

She had expected Alec to adjust to life outside of Manticore in the same amount of time it had taken him to learn the piano. She'd been in the 'real world' half her life, and she was still adjusting. Hell, even Superman had problems coping with his identity. How could she have expected Alec to be a candidate for a Citizenship Award?

Shaking her head in self-disgust, she roamed further towards the fringes of Terminal City. Alec had been planning to meet with Sketchy and discuss a pro-transgenic article for New World Weekly. Seems the editor was supportive of the transgenics and their lost cause.

Maybe he wasn't even in Terminal City, or perhaps he'd been on his way back when the attack began. Stands to reason that he would use the wee hours of the morning when most ordinaries were asleep to sneak in un-noticed.

A flicker of hope sparked in Max's mind and ignited for a blissful moment, chasing out the demons which were gathering within the shadows of her conscience. The more she thought about it, the more likely it was that he'd still be alive. Probably recovering from a long night of beer and hookers with their pal Sketch.

Strangely, the thought of Alec indulging in such things was comforting to her right now. If it meant he'd still be alive then hell, he could be out in a forest chasing down men and ripping out their teeth right now for all she cared. So long as he would come back to her and give her one of those cocky grins, she could handle anything else life would throw at her. And she really needed one of those grins right now.

But before she could carry on that merry train of thought, a voice cried her name, breaking through the eerie silence of her surroundings.

Slowly Max turned to see an X6 running towards her. Dalton. At the sight of him, she broke into a relieved grin, remembering that he had volunteered to remain as a look out near the section of perimeter fence through which Alec had escaped. Surely he was coming to tell her that Alec was still beyond Terminal City, and therefore safe?

But the hope that had risen within Max at the sight of him, abruptly extinguished as she realised he wore an expression of alarm. Even before he reached her, she knew he carried bad news, and her fears for Alec suddenly tripled.

Skidding to a halt in front of Max, eyes wide with shock, Dalton stammered out a few barely audible words before the stress of it all overwhelmed him and he collapsed into Max's arms. Alarmed at this display of weakness coming from a soldier, albeit a young soldier, Max felt those few remaining tendrils of hope slip away from her like dandelion seeds, blowing away on the breeze.

Maintaining her patience to the best of her ability, she gently took Dalton by his shoulders and pulled him back from her. Looking into his eyes, she took a deep breath to steady her voice and asked, "where is he?"

_Cause I knew, I knew I'd lose you_

Dalton led her to the remnants of an alleyway amongst a cluster of what had once been buildings, but were now nothing more than giant gravestones for the dead buried beneath. The dead who would most likely never be laid to rest.

Stretched out on the ground lay a body, and of course Max knew who it was even before she saw his beautiful blood-caked face. Amid his many other injuries, a long piece of metal jutted out from his stomach. Sickly, Max briefly acknowledged how it had torn through his intestines. Even if he were still alive, there was nothing any one of them could do except watch him die.

_Will I forget in time?_

"I found him here. I didn't mean to lose him, he told me to stay behind and watch the fence till he returned. Stand guard for him." The small voice beside her cracked slightly beneath the weight of unshed tears.

"I did just that, but when they started firing on us, and the buildings started to collapse, I ran. I took cover. I didn't even know he'd returned until I stumbled across him lying here!"

_They said I was on your mind_

Somehow forgetting her own misery for the moment, Max drew Dalton into her arms. "I'm so sorry Dalton. I'm so sorry you had to be the one to find him".

"I stayed with him, hoping he'd wake up. But I heard others calling out. I heard people shouting to come and help them. I thought I could find help too. If only I had done so sooner!"

"There's nothing anyone could do." Came Max's increasingly detached reply. "You did well to stick by him."

During her search, she had felt almost void of emotion. Unable to cope with her fears, it was easier to push her feelings aside and focus on finding Alec. But at last the events of the day caught up on her, forcing the horror and pain to the surface at last. Without Alec in her life, she hoped she would feel numb forever, so that she'd never have to deal with the torment and grief that accompanied this loss.

_There's no need to argue_

Needing to be alone, Max adopted a commanding voice and prepared to bark out orders. It was what Dalton needed. It was what they all needed. Herself included. Except for once in her life, Max wished she could be taking orders from someone else.

"Now soldier, I need you to head back towards the medic-centre. Even if it no longer stands, that's where anyone still alive would have gone. Find a couple of people to come with a stretcher. We're taking Alec home."

'Where ever home may now be.' She silently added to herself.

"Yes Ma'am."

As Dalton turned and headed back in the direction they had come from, Max sank to the ground. At last, she had found the person she'd spent the morning searching for. Now she was left to deal with her grief.

_There's no need to argue anymore_


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: This is the last chapter that has song lyrics through it. The lyrics for this one are from 'Porcelain' by Moby. They just fit so perfectly. Now let me impart some words of wisdom; If you have Moby at hand, LISTEN TO THE SONG! Trust me, go on, go do now!_

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**No Need To Argue - Chapter Two**

**by Sorrow Reminisce**

**ll l lll ll l lll**

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_In my dreams I'm dying all the time_

It seemed the tears would never stop flowing, that this pain would cling to her like a shroud forever. 'Why is it that you never seem to appreciate what you have until it's gone?' Max asked herself. Perhaps because you're too busy looking in the wrong direction. Came the reply. Little voices inside the head could be so unbearably loud sometimes.

As Max ran her fingers down Alec's still, expressionless cheek, she felt a faint muscle spasm beneath her fingertips. Her breath caught in her throat and she held onto it, not daring to move. Sharp feline eyes focused intensely on his face, waiting to see whether the movement had been real, or wishful thinking.

Several lifetimes passed by in the space of one minute, but the muscle spasm was not repeated. With her own heart beat increasing, Max laid a finger upon the side of Alec's throat to check for a pulse. At first, it seemed there was none. But then she felt it, faint, but unmistakably real beneath her sensitive touch. Could this be real? She was no longer sure.

_As I wake its kaleidoscopic mind_

"Hey, hey wake up Alec. Please, just open your eyes?" Pleading, Max cut off the urge to pry open his eyelids herself. She silently promised that if he woke up, she'd never say horrible hurtful things to him again. She promised that she'd be totally honest with him. "There's so much that I have to say to you, and while you're in my arms, you're going to have to hear it, so wake up!"

But there was no reply from Alec. Not even a twitch. His body lay as still and silent as the dead.

"Damn you Alec!" Max screamed in frustration as she gave his shoulders a particularly violent shake, almost forgetful of the large metal object protruding from his stomach. "This is not the time for complacency! Wake up God-damned it! Bip, bip, bip soldier boy!"

Max's voice was cracked and hoarse as she was overcome by emotions that had never before been accepted. With a will of their own, words tumbled out of her mouth as she alternated between pounding his shoulder and just plain trying to squeeze the marrow from his bones.

"I hate you for doing this to me! You can't die Alec please? You can't leave me here alone! Just please, wake up?"

_I never meant to hurt you_

So intent was she on venting her misery that she didn't notice his face occasionally wince in pain, or the breaths he struggled to drag into his lungs.

"Why can't you be serious for once and stop playing around? Do you want me to run through all the reasons why I love you before you open your eyes?"

Her own final words stunned her into silence. Love him huh? Where the hell had that come from? Her mind couldn't comprehend this final thought and so it promptly shut down on her.

It was during that pause in her tirade that she finally blinked away her tears long enough to take a deep breath and look down upon Alec's face. And at the eyes that had opened and were staring intently at her.

For a long moment, Max could do nothing but stare back. And then she smiled and said the first thing that came into her mind.

"You jerk. I'm so gonna kick your ass."

"Max... " Alec's brow furrowed as a stab of pain cut into him. "Max I'm feeling a strange sense of de-ja vu"

"You're going to be okay" Those words were as false as the smile she forced upon her lips and they both knew it.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again Maxie." He smiled a little as he reached up to tentatively run a finger down her cheek. "I'm dying Max."

"Just hold on 'cause Dalton's gone to get help. It's not as bad as it looks - you're an X5 don't forget? You're not gonna die on me, I won't allow it!"

There was no way Alec could survive the kind of wound he had. Especially here, now, with their home in ruins and absolutely no way to give him the medical help he needed to even have the slightest chance. So much for honesty. Max was practically choking on her lies now. But what could she do?

_I never meant to lie_

"I tried to find you Max. I wanted have the chance to say sorry for everything I've done. For..." Alec's words were interrupted by racking coughs and Max was alarmed to see fresh blood ooze out of his large abdominal wound.

"Shhh, it's okay" she whispered, trying to smile but failing miserably at the effort. Alec lay in her arms dying. So much time had been wasted on the wrong person. So many opportunities she had chosen to ignore because of a stupid dream to be a 'real girl'. Who did she think she was, Pinocchio?

Right here and now was the only chance she had left to try and put things right. Alec didn't have to die without knowing how important he'd become to her, but the window of opportunity closing. His life was draining out of him in red rivulets through her fingers, his consciousness slipping away even faster.

_So this is goodbye_

"I never meant to be a disappointment, Max. I tried to make you proud of me. I was just trying to make sure we were all safe."

The words broke Max's heart. Even as he lay here dying, Alec's thoughts were on the supposed failings that summed up his life, or so he thought - so she had made him feel. How much hurt had she caused him? When all he had wanted to do was the right thing. All on account of her.

"Please don't speak like that. You're not a disappointment! You could never be a disappointment!"

It chilled Max that Alec's voice was so weak, it barely sounded like his own. She had half expected him to flash a grin and crack a joke at the situation he was in. "If this is what it took to be so close to your breasts, I would have thrown myself upon a steel truss long ago" would have been his usual smart ass remark, regardless of the situation.

But as she looked into eyes that were so filled with pain and fear, Max realised he was too numbed by agony, and the anticipation of his own impending death, to care for wisecracks.

Max felt as if her very soul had been torn asunder at the realisation she would never be privy to his collection of one-liners ever again. Alec was the master of witticism, who else could she steal great phrases from? Gods, even now she was wasting precious time.

_This is goodbye_

"There's so many things I should have done different" Max whispered, as she gently stoked Alec's forehead. It all seemed a horrible nightmare as she watched how his eyes struggled to remain focused. "I've spent my life searching for a home, and I only realise now that home is where ever you are. Home is being right beside you."

Alec's eyes widened in surprise as he was temporarily drawn back into consciousness by this revelation. Confusion flashed across his features as her words sunk into his mind.

_Tell the truth you never wanted me_

For a few moments, Alec's mouth opened and closed soundlessly, then he drew in a ragged breath and whispered "I've tried to find you for so long Maxie. I wanted the chance to show you how much I've changed, that I'm not a failure. But after everything I've put you through, after everything I've done... how can you care about me?"

_Tell me_

Holding in the sobs that threatened to erupt from her chest, Max struggled for composure, not wanting to spend these final moments mourning, when she would have a life time to do so after wards.

"No, you're not a failure. I'm the one who failed you. I left you face this world by yourself and expected you to cope without any support. I failed you. I failed all of you."

"I tried to do things right Maxie. Just that sometimes I didn't know who I was. Sometimes I wished I was back in Manticore. I needed you Max. You have no idea how much I needed you."

Alec's voice broke with long suppressed emotions on those final words but this only caused him to start a new round of coughing. This time, blood trickled from his mouth. As he struggled more obviously now, to draw in breath, Max was aware that it wasn't long now. And there was still so much that needed to be said.

"I'm so sorry, please believe me?" Max drew closer to Alec and rested her cheek upon his head. "You were right. Logan doesn't rock my world. You're the rock in my world, I need you to lean against, to hold me up. I can't do this without you!"

Reaching up to wipe away her tears and brush his fingers across her lips, he smiled weakly "You know I've always loved you Max. Even at my worst, I always loved you."

"I know." Max lightly kissed his finger tips, closing her eyes tightly for a moment to hold back the tears that threatened to blur her vision. She didn't want to ever forget those hazel eyes that now regarded her with such pain. Hazel eyes that should be twinkling with laughter. Hazel eyes that once closed, she would never see again. "I just wish I could turn back time and change everything for you. For both of us."

Alec was so busy trying not drown in his own blood, Max wasn't sure if he could even hear her. Taking into attention the condition of his injuries, Max drew him closer into her arms and kissed his forehead, her lips lingering upon his skin as she inhaled his scent. A scent tainted by blood and death.

She didn't know where she was finding the strength to hold it together. She put it down to sheer determination to make their final moments together as calm and peaceful as possible. There would be plenty of time for tears later. Like the rest of her life.

_In my dreams I'm jealous all the time_

Why was he the one who lay here dying? Why couldn't it be her? How could she be expected to remain in this world without Alec? Where once his presence was annoying, Max now realised he had held her together, keeping her fired up with his jibes. How could she continue now, now that she realised all that would be missing from her life with the loss of Alec? This had to be wrong. A mistake. She'd surely wake up soon and find it all to be a long, painful dream.

Max took one of Alec's hands into her own as she felt his efforts to breath grow weaker. As if somehow she could keep his soul within him that much longer.

"It's going to okay" She smiled through the tears that began to run down her face. This moment felt so surreal. Alec's words of de-ja vu came back to haunt her now. Memories of another time. Another place. A forest. "Have I ever told you about the good place? I stopped believing in it years ago, but if it were real, no one would hunt us there. We'd be free..."

He was gone. No longer did he struggle for breath. The hand she held in hers had fallen limp. Tears flowed easily now. She was surprised she still had any left.

Adjusting Alec in her arms, his head tipped back slightly and she couldn't help but smile at how innocent and peaceful he looked. 'This can't be real...' She laid a kiss upon his blood-stained lips and rested her forehead against his. 'It just feels too wrong to be real.'

"I love you Alec" She whispered to him.

A strange kind of peace settled over her, in the knowledge that this nightmare would all be over soon. Soon White's men would arrive, and finish her off. Soon... Closing her eyes, Max realised how tired she was. Wrapping her arms further around Alec's warm body, she resolved to stay here by his side. She'd always got up and soldiered on, fighting her way out of every unfavourable situation. Determined never to let anyone bring her down. But she was so tired... So tired, and what was the point now anyway?

xxxxxx

_As I wake I'm going out of my mind_

""Little Fella, wake up" A large warm hand pulled back her head and pried her arms away from the body she held in them.

"Max. Max!"

Opening her eyes, Max looked into the large brown ones of Joshua.

"Joshua!" Max cried out both with relief and sadness to see her friend. But the relief was short lived as Joshua pulled her up and away from Alec's body and started to drag her away.

"Joshua stop! What the hell are you doing? I can't leave Alec here!"

Joshua looked down at Alec for a moment before tightening his grip on Max's arm and pulling her along once again. "Max come now. Alec has been looking for you."

Shocked, Max could only stare at Joshua as he began to explain haltingly, how Alec had been organising the remaining transgenics into units and planning their escape into the sewers. She couldn't understand this, any of this. How could he not see that Alec was lying dead at their feet?

"Alec is not organising anything except his payment into the next world Joshua! Alec is dead!" It was hard to speak, her mind felt as if it were tearing apart. Words came out with difficulty as though she were speaking underwater.

"Look down at that body Joshua, look at that face. There is Alec, and he's dead!" She tore herself away from Joshua's grasp and fell back to the ground beside Alec, determined to make Joshua look and see their friend.

"Max. How can you think that is Alec?"

_Going out of my mind_

"How can you look at him and say it's not Alec?" Max's words were muffled as her face was buried in Alec's neck. "Just go Joshua, you're not feeling well. Leave us alone."

Max didn't know what was going on here. Was this a dream after all? She wasn't sure, but she was beginning to understand. She was losing her mind.

Joshua walked over to Max and lay a hand on her shoulder. "Of course he _looks_ like Alec." He spoke to her in a voice one would use when trying to rationalize with a child. "But he's not Alec."

Mouth open, Max simply stared at her friend - knowing one of them was crazy but not sure who.

Sniffing the air, Joshua continued to try and explain what he meant, although he didn't understand why Max couldn't figure it out for herself. "He doesn't smell like Alec."

Max raised her head at this last remark. "What the hell do you mean?"

Sighing, Joshua searched for the words, but a better idea came to mind. Lifting 'Alec's' head forward to reveal the back of his neck, he pointed out the proof. "See, wrong barcode."

Max followed Joshua's gaze. He was right. The last three lines of the barcode were all the confirmation she needed. Of course he had smelt of blood and death. Of course his voice hadn't quite sounded like his own.

_Going out of my mind_

The body she held in her arms belonged to Ben.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: I know, I know. The old 'return of the evil dead twin' plot. It was like stepping into some kind of cheesy Days of our Lives/Dark Angel crossover. Bet ya didn't see that one coming though, huh? :D For those offended by me having Ben resuscitated only to kill him again, I'm sorry - truly. I can understand, but it was necessary for this story to exist! (Otherwise it would've ended at the end of chapter 2 with Alec simply being dead. What's the lesser of two evils?)

Our story really starts to take form from here onward. No more song lyrics, but lots of plot twists that kick in just when you think you're getting comfortable. Hope you enjoy. :)

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**No Need To Argue - Chapter Three**

**by Sorrow Reminisce**

**ll l lll ll l lll**

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How many times in one day could your heart stand still? How many times before you body finally gave up on restarting itself and gave in to the darkness?

Ben was dead. She had broken his neck herself in the forest as Manticore soldiers closed in on them. You don't just get up and walk away from a broken neck. Life isn't that easy.

Unless of course, you're a cat with nine of them.

This was a twist Max hadn't anticipated. That she could pour out all these feelings at last, and they were to the wrong person. Ben. Poor flawed Ben had died again in her arms - for the final time. And she hadn't even realised it was him.

Her intense relief to know Alec was alive, was marred by the shock of losing her brother all over again. Never before had she felt such ambivalence as two opposing emotions waged war inside her mind, neither side winning.

"I'm sorry Max. I... they were dressed so similar I didn't notice the difference... I never knew that Alec had a twin..."

Max tore her eyes from the body at her feet, and turned to see Dalton standing beside Joshua. She wanted to reassure him that he'd done nothing wrong, but couldn't find any words within her. Or the energy to speak them anyway.

"Come Max." Joshua's soft gruff voice broke into her thoughts. "We have to go now."

Max leant against her friend and he wrapped his arms around her. She was so, so tired. If only she could just leave this body of hers and let someone else take over it for a while. She didn't have room within her to deal with a single thing more.

"Not without Ben." Max whispered at last.

Letting go of Max, Joshua knelt to pick Ben up. Max turned her head away as he pulled from Ben's stomach, the offending object which had caused his death. After doing this, he lifted him into his arms and motioned to Max he was ready. "Come Max"

Dalton fell into step beside her, but with the exception of the odd worried look both he and Joshua turned to give her, there was no interaction between any of them.

Still unable to comprehend that Alec was alive, and that Ben had been the one lying in her arms.. once more, Max's mind crumpled beneath the weight of confusion and grief. Her body switched into autopilot as she stumbled through Terminal City, occasionally steadied by Dalton. She had no idea where she was going, she could be following Joshua into Hell for all she cared. Perhaps she was.

It seemed as if she had been doing this forever: placing one foot in front of the other behind Joshua. She looked up from the ground and noticed Ben's head had fallen back against the crook of Joshua's arm. He looked so peaceful. He looked surreal. The sight of him brought fresh pain as memories plagued her. New tears welled up behind red, sore eyes. Max found it was much easier to simply stare back at the ground.

Finally the sound of voices entered Max's head. She ignored them for a while, figuring it was yet another sign that she was losing her mind. But when at last Joshua stopped walking, and she collided into the back of him, Max looked up and discovered the voices hadn't belonged to her after all. One small relief.

Someone had found Joshua's flag and propped it up at the top of a mound of rubble. It served as a pillar of strength for those who were left as well as a landmark for the survivors to rally to. Plans to evacuate were well under way, and it wouldn't be long before the flag also became a target when the Army chose to strike again.

Those few who hadn't already left TC were gathered here now. Decampment was a work in progress, it was hard to slip past the National Guard and the weary lines of defeat were etched on every face. So many had died, and in a morbid kind of way, it was just as well. It would be easier to escape with fewer of them.

Max scanned the small crowd for faces she knew. For one face in particular.

"Max! What took you so long?" The voice that rang out behind her made her heart beat faster and her stomach churn with trepidation. "And where's the pizza?"

Turning, she saw Alec standing behind her. Although he smiled and jested, his eyes were sad and serious. Haunted by the death of so many of their kind that day.

Funny how your mind can suddenly become utterly blank when confronted by someone who you hate then love, think is dead, then find to be alive... all in the space of a day. Less than an hour ago Max thought she had been crying over the body of the man who stood this moment in front of her. A man who was watching her expectantly, waiting for something intelligible to come out of her mouth. An insult or two perhaps.

No sound at all was forthcoming. Max had no idea what to say or do. She wanted to simply throw her arms around him and never let go, yet she held back. How would he react to such an uncharacteristic show of affection from her? After all the things she'd said and done to him in the past, why would he even care?

After all, she was the one who had disregarded everything and everyone in her search for him today. Had he even wondered if she survived or not?

It was safer not to know. Better just to hold back, lock her heart away in that secret compartment where it was so often kept, so that nothing could ever rip it out again. After every thing she'd done to him, she could hardly expect him to care.

"Uh hi. Alec" Joshua finally relieved Max from the responsibility of speech, causing Alec to look towards him and notice the body that lay in his arms.

"What the..." Surprise captured an expression on Alec's face that Max could have found humorous under different circumstances. Joshua too could see it, and inappropriately chuffed aloud. The sound was so out of context with the situation, it broke Max's trance.

"What the hell is so funny?" Brown eyes blazed in anger as she turned a fiery glare upon her dog-like friend.

"Uh, nothing Max." Joshua lowered his head in embarrassment and decided he'd best depart the scene. Not knowing what else to do, he forced the body into Alec's arms and quickly headed away from the hurricane he could see brewing within Max's eyes, while muttering "Sorry Max, sorry" as he went.

Alec now found himself holding the corpse of a person who undoubtedly looked just like himself. Blanching, he asked, "Max why the hell am I standing here holding myself?"

Seeing Alec standing there holding Ben's body in his arms was causing bile to rise in her throat. She raised the back of her hand to her mouth while the other hand clenched at her stomach. This was indeed too much.

"Max, please," Alec rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Tell me, when is Mini-me going to run over and grab at my knee? I mean, I know I'm hot but, how many more of me are out there? I don't think I can handle all this competition!"

"Alec!" This was just the straw that broke the camel's back. "Shut up!"

Words fired out of her mouth after that, she had no control over herself. The tough-girl attitude was ingrained into her very soul and even though she had come so close to losing him today, his flippant attitude was almost enough to make her wonder why she cared. So many emotions raged within her, and so she reacted the only way she knew how. By firing up that old primitive defence mechanism.

"Can you just side step your ego for one moment and quit fooling around? How dare you stand here and joke? God, that you even survived today amazes me. It truly does. I expected you to be the first target they'd go for - the guy standing on a rooftop pulling silly faces at the jets!"

Somewhere within her, the quiet voice of reason asked why couldn't she just be relieved to have him here alive - hadn't she recently lamented the loss of that unique Alec witticism? Unfortunately, she had silently asked earlier if someone else could take over her body for a while. At this moment in time, it appeared that wish had been granted.

Alec's mouth dropped open, a flabbergasted expression imprinted itself upon his face. The heat of Max's words were scathing. "Max... what the hell is your problem? Would you prefer it if I _had_ been the first target?"

His words shocked Max into halting her tirade, and she instantly regretted her foolishness. Her gaze dropped to the ground, and she fumbled for something to say. She wanted so much to close the gap between them and pour out the fears she had held all day - fears that she had lost him.

But a cynical voice within her continued to peck away at her mind with doubtful questions. How could he be so unconcerned for her, when she'd spent the past several hours crying for the loss of him. Had he once thought to search for her?

These were questions Max knew she couldn't ask him. She couldn't expect him to care for her, when up until today she had never treated him with anything but total disregard - as if he were nothing more than an imbecile. And this truth of her own intolerance was the hardest to deal with. To admit it would be to drop the wall of armour she clutched so tightly to herself. And she couldn't do that, could she?

Instead Max covered her self-doubts with yet more anger. And from that anger sprung words that she knew to be entirely inappropriate, even as they burst from her mouth. "Do you have any idea what's happened to us today Alec? To our people?"

As the words left Max's lips, Alec's expression turned so cold, she abruptly shut her mouth and scanned her brain to recall what had just been said.

"Yes I do have an idea of what happened today Max." Alec's tone was quiet and dangerous. "I was the one who helped pull our dying from the wreckage that surrounded them. Something you should've been doing. I was the one who dug Dix's grave and made those who could stand, dig the graves of their friends and loved ones. Something you should've been doing."

Max took a step back, away from the pain and anger radiating from the man standing before her. But he hadn't finished getting his point across yet.

"I was the one who sent scouts to the perimeter of Terminal City to learn how close we are to being invaded by our own country's army. I was the one who made a count of those able to walk, and paired them with those who couldn't, so no one will be left behind when we move out... Where have you been all this time Max?"

"With you." It made no sense. Nothing she could say would. There really were no simple answers anymore. "I thought you were dead. I thought I was going out of my mind Alec. I didn't mean what I said, I just don't know how to... I'm sorry, I really am. You have no idea how many times I've said that today..."

Alec's expression softened as he took in the bedraggled sight of her. Noticing the dejected slump of her shoulders, and the face stained by blood and tears, he felt his anger dissipate. And then her words sunk in.

Had she believed that this body which had been so awkwardly thrust into his arms to be him? And had she cried over him? No, he must have it all wrong, Max would never cry over his death. Then again, he couldn't recall a time when he'd seen her look so lost and frail - that too went against her nature.

'No, she must be suffering from some kind of shell shock.' Alec thought to himself. The trauma of the day had affected Max's ability to maintain logical thought - it was the only explanation.

Alec looked reluctantly down to the body in his arms - the body which he knew was an exact replica of his own. His skin crawled at the sight of the dead face - a carbon copy of himself. A clone. He had so many questions to ask, who was this person? Why had he not known he had yet another clone roaming about - and right here in Terminal City no less? But these questions would have to wait, there were issues of far more importance to be dealt with first.

Looking around for a place to lay down his clone, Alec spotted an old car which had been damaged only by time itself, and settled the body on top of the bonnet. Then he walked to Max and gently took her in his arms, unsure of what her response would be but knowing he simply needed to hold her.

When Max felt Alec's strong arms envelop her, she sank towards him and took a deep relaxing breath as the screams inside her mind finally subsided to a dull roar. This was real. Alec truly was alive. These arms around her were no illusion. She wanted to cry again, but she didn't think he would ever let her live it down. She'd done that enough today anyway - must be too much oestrogen in the drinking water.

They could have stood there in each others arms for eternity, and it still wouldn't seem long enough. Max closed her eyes and indulged in the feelings Alec provoked in her as he gently massaged away the tension in her back with one hand, while holding her tightly to him with the other. If the future ahead gave her no other reason to live, she had this one fragment of time to lose herself in.

"Hey Max."

A soft familiar voice cut into their peace, causing Max to jump in surprise, and Alec to break away from their embrace.

Before them stood Logan, his hair disarrayed and clothing in tatters. The result of a day spent helping in the search for survivors, and in aiding Alec as they picked over Terminal City - in search of Max.

"I'm glad to see you're safe and sound."

Max nodded wordlessly and Logan suddenly felt awkwardly out of place, and unsure of what direction to look in. For months he had tried to come to terms with knowing Max and Alec were together, he had tried to tell himself it was enough for him just to be there for her as a friend. As time passed and Max continued to treat Alec with the same disregard as she always had, he had even begun to hope there was a chance that she still loved him. But seeing them now... he didn't want to meet either of their stares, and display the hurt he felt at seeing Max with someone else... with Alec.

Instead, his gaze fell upon the body lying upon the beat up old car, and he started in surprise. "What the..?"

"It's Ben" Max whispered softly, closing her eyes to hold in the grief she felt wash within her all over again.

"Ben? Your brother?" Logan gaped as Max nodded wordlessly. Unsure of what to say next, he stood rooted to the spot, and searched his mind for the appropriate wording for the question that begged to be asked. _How?_

Feeling the air beside her stir, Max opened her eyes to see Alec step past and walk back to the body of his dead clone. She could hardly imagine what he was thinking - to have his crazy twin, the brother who had caused him so much pain back in Manticore, here now. Killed, on his way into Terminal City it seemed. Killed as he tried to seek refuge.

Alec's jaw tighten as he winced at memories trapped far within his mind. The fact that this was Ben and not simply another clone, changed everything. Even though he'd never been sure why, the actions of X5-493 had in turn condemned X5-494. In his last year in Manticore, Alec had been put through Psy-Ops to prove he wasn't a nomolie like his twin had been. He had hated him so much. But after the night Max had at last confided in Alec the secret she had held within herself for so long, Alec began to feel something towards Ben that he had never imagined possible. Compassion.

Now Alec removed his jacket and gently placed it over the grisly abdominal wound that had caused his twin's death - for the final time. He reached out and lightly brushed his fingertips over the cheek that was in a bizarre way, his own. Ben's skin was so cold, and as Alec's eyes ran over the mirror image of his own face - expressionless and dead - a chill of foreboding passed through him, and he quickly withdrew his hand and turned away. Nausea suddenly gripping him.

"Max... how?" Alec's words escaped his throat as if he were being strangled, and he swallowed back the taste of bile that now filled his mouth.

"I don't know how." Max stepped forward, unsure of what she could do to ease Alec's distress. "I mean, I was supposed to be dead, and so was Zack. But Manticore brought us back. Amazing what things can be achieved when you combine Mary Shelley with modern technology."

Max's voice was laced with bitter irony. Their creators surely were reluctant to let their soldiers go. Not only were they willing to hunt them across the country, they had no qualms about dragging them back from death too. A chill struck her then. Was Tinga, Eva and Jack still out there somewhere? Alive?

"He died in my arms Alec, and I didn't even realise it was him until it was too late! The things I could have said, I didn't say - I thought he was you! And so I told him all the wrong things..."

Now Alec realised why she was so upset, it was the guilt of dishing out all those insults on her brother while he lay mortally wounded. He felt his heart sink. "What did you say to him then? I mean..." He paused to search for the right words. "Did he know that you were suffering from mistaken identity?"

"I don't remember. It's all a hazy blur." Max lied. She couldn't do this, she just couldn't find the words. Too many emotions were tugging at her in too many different directions. Guilt, love, pain, hope, fear.. they all fought for supremacy within her.

"Well, if you thought he was me... Then I'm guessing one of the first things you told him was how much you wanted to kick his ass huh?" Alec's tone was light-hearted as he arched his eyebrows questioningly, and Max couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah. I did tell him that actually."

Relieved at Max's smile, and dying of curiosity now, Alec pressed on, Logan for the moment forgotten. "Come on Max, what else did you say? What did you say when you thought it was me dying? I mean, I can tell you were crying. Your eyes are all puffed up and red and your nose is..."

Some things, you just can't say in words - and so Max simply whacked him across the head.

"I was searching for... survivors, when I came across Dalton. He's the one who led me to you, uh.. to Ben." Hesitating for a moment, Max considered how she was going to phrase this discussion and cover her base, without giving too much of herself away. "I thought you were dead, and that I'd lost my best punching bag."

"Oh!" Alec could hear a touch of playfulness creep into Max's voice. "So THAT'S all I am to you huh? A punching bag! And here I thought we were friends. That's really sad Max, I'll remember that next time you need a favour..."

"Oh come on Alec, you enjoy the attention!"

Alec grinned and shrugged his shoulders, but the smile slid from his face as his eyes fell upon Ben's body once more. Max watched as he closed his eyes, a pained expression crossing his face, and she looked over her shoulder, guilt suddenly enveloping her at the sight of Ben stretched out on the bonnet of the car - as she stood bantering with his twin.

Behind them, Logan cleared his throat. "Hey guys, I know this isn't a good time and all, but there's something we really need to talk about."

Slowly Max shifted her eyes towards Logan, his tone was low and serious and held no small measure of hesitancy. Reluctantly she asked, "more bad news?"

The cyber-journalist nodded and waved his cell phone in the air. "I spoke earlier to a... contact. He's adamant that the US government gave no authorisation for this attack."

"What do you mean? Could he be lying?" Max felt her stomach churn uneasily. "Who else would have the power to do all this?"

Logan said nothing, but simply frowned slightly, knowing that Max already knew the answer to that question.

"White? The familiars? Do you mean to tell me they have their own secret army with military jets and all, stashed away under Mt Rainier?"

"Not quite." Logan idly flipped the cover of cell phone open, and snapped it shut again, before repeating the action once more. "Although to be honest, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. They've been at this game for thousands of years."

Alec thought the idea over, and found it made sense. "If they've got people deep within the government and army, they could have issued false orders."

"But it would jeopardise their positions - their own lives!" Despite her protests, Max knew something as trivial as the lives of their own people, would hardly stop the Conclave from giving orders such as these.

"White was willing to betray the government and admit to the existence of transgenics wasn't he? No doubt on orders of the Conclave." Alec checked his watch. "And we seriously need to get a move on. At the moment I bet the Army are running around like headless chickens, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. This is our opportunity to get the hell out of here - and White's opportunity to send his super team in to finish us off."

Fortunately, Alec and Mole had already set up teams to clear the sewers, and had begun to move transgenics out as soon as it had become possible. Those who still remained in Terminal City were a dozen soldiers who had volunteered to search through the rubble for survivors, and a few of the Nomolies who adamantly refused to leave Terminal City - deciding they were better off standing their ground here, then spending their lives on the run and hiding in the shadows.

"I'm not going until I've buried Ben."

Alec winced, knowing Max was going to say that, and knowing also that they were cutting it incredibly close if they were to have any chance of getting out. But of course he couldn't argue over such a matter as this. Seeing the pain jump back into Max's eyes at the thought of the task, he stepped forward and pulled her close to him. "Of course. We'll do that first."

Logan coughed slightly, uncomfortably. "Well uh, I'm going to head back to Sandeman's house and see what information I can dug up through the Informant Net."

Max nodded and glanced to Logan, offering him a small smile. "Okay then. We'll meet you there."

Nodding, Logan paused as he began to turn away, words entered his mouth but became trapped upon entering his throat. Finally he forced them out, and tried to pretend there was no innuendo to them. "Be careful."

Max hesitated before offering a quiet, "you too."

As Logan retreated towards the outskirts of Terminal City, Max felt a pair of hands softly take her shoulders and turn her around. She gulped back the nervousness that suddenly filled her as a pair of hazel eyes drew her into their depths. If she leant forward just a little...

Whether or not Alec read her mind she'd never be sure, but the words that came from his mouth jolted her back into reality.

"First things first Max, we have to take care of Ben."

Wrenching her eyes away from his, she looked to the body of her brother. Her greatest wish at this moment was that she could put this off. On top of everything else, she didn't want to deal with the callous finality of what would be a brusque funeral. Nodding slightly, she stepped away from Alec and walked over to the car where Ben lay.

"How are we going to do this?" she asked as she lifted his body into her arms, she couldn't handle seeing Alec carry his twin again.

"Before this place turned toxic, there was a small scrap of land they used as a playground. It's now become a graveyard." Alec didn't want to mention how recently it'd become a graveyard, nor how many holes had been dug there today already.

"Lead the way."

Three blocks later they reached their grim destination. Grabbing a piece of metal that Max sickeningly thought resembled the one her brother had been impaled by, Alec began to dig. The grave was shallow but there was little concern of Ben's remains being savaged by animals. Those that had survived the cancerous atmosphere had not survived TC's population of hungry transgenics.

It wasn't long before the time came to lay him into the ground, but Max was reluctant to let him go. When Alec approached her offering to take him, and she found herself staring into the calm gentle face of Ben's twin, she began to wonder again if perhaps this was all a crazy dream.

"Please Max, I know it's hard, but we still have the living to take care of." Alec's eyes, so open and warm, triggered in her a fresh wave of grief. She'd never noticed it before, but he resembled everything that Ben _could have_ been, if only he'd had the chance. If only Max had stayed with him all those years ago and chased the demons from his mind.

"I can do it." Her voice sounded hollow and strange even to her own ears.

Alec watched as she placed a soft kiss upon Bens lips and laid him into the ground. Thinking back to the night Max had opened up to him about Ben, he wondered if she was so hard on him not just because of who he reminded her of, but because she was angry that her brother had died when Alec the screw up got to live.

But then he remembered how Ben had been the budding young dentist, not he. And despite the fact that her brother looked so innocent in death, he had been a cold-blooded killer in life.

Reaching out to brush back Ben's hair one final time, Max felt hot tears slide down her cheeks at the thought of leaving him here in this fetid earth. He may have become a serial killer, but she still remembered him as the boy who would tell her stories late at night and make everything all right.

Numbly, she sat back as Alec covered his body over with dirt. She couldn't move, couldn't bear to do anything except lose herself within the memories of their final moments together - the second time round. She was glad she'd had this chance to say goodbye to Ben, glad she'd been able to tell him she was sorry, and that she cared. In a way, she'd said all the right words to him after all. Even though she hadn't realise who she was saying it to at the time.

There was so many things she wished she could change, so many people she wished she could make whole again. Today she thought she had lost the chance to tell Alec how she felt about him. She thought he would die believing that she hated him and she had prayed to whatever god that may exist, for a second chance. She had been given that second chance and she couldn't afford to waste it.

"I'm going to be back in a minute okay Maxie? I just have to get something."

Max looked Alec in alarm "No! What if something happens - what if you don't come back!" Panic gripped her at the thought of all the unfinished feelings that lay within her, all the things she had yet to say - to the real Alec.

"Max I'll be straight back. I promise." Alec gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. It did nothing to reassure her.

"No Alec! You can't leave me!"

Alec stopped in surprise. Never before had he heard Max sound terrified. Even during the worst of times, she seemed to retain a certain amount of emotional detachment. Even when it involved Logan and the virus.

"Just one minute okay Max?"

Alec was stunned to realise that for once in her life, Max was actually reaching out to him. But there was one thing that was needed to finish off Ben's burial - something to give Max a minute bit of reassurance for her lost brother. And so reluctantly, he pulled his hand from her grasp and ran back the way they had come.

Leaving Max fearing that she had somehow just lost that second chance.

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The team moved silently through the smouldering remains of Terminal City, ever watchful for signs of movement in the rubble around them. The wasteland had been shattered into pieces. Buildings that once stood neglected, now ceased to stand altogether - except for a few that stood out amid the concrete chaos, like skeletons.

At a glance, one would find it hard to believe anything could have survived the attack. But these people knew that transgenics were like cockroaches. They had survived the burning of Manticore, they had survived the months of persecution that followed, and somehow - there would be some among them who would have survived this.

Occasionally a sound broke into the eerie silence that surrounded the team as they cautiously scoured the scarred and bleeding earth. The tortured moan of a half ruined building as it gave in to death and sank into the ground, the scraping rumble of shifting rubble. And once or twice, the pained cries of transgenics crushed beneath it all.

The team leader knew that any able survivors would be long gone by now. But still, she followed procedure, and hoped to get lucky. Perhaps the one with whom she had a score to settle had been left behind, deserted by her own kind for bringing about the destruction of their home, and the deaths of their fellow brethren. Perhaps she was one of the trapped and dying.

Twelve of the finest purebred familiars had been selected by the Conclave as the transgenic clean up crew. Upon entering the remains of Terminal City, they had split into two groups. Four of these familiars had made up the first team of Phalanx sent to execute X5-452.

The team that had failed, and brought the greatest dishonour upon themselves for not only allowing themselves to be captured, but to be ridiculed by humans in the process. This time, there was to be no failure.

If they failed, and the transgenics spared their lives once more, they would lose all chance of redemption in the eyes of their Gods. They would be unworthy, weak, useless - nothing more than genetic pond scum. And the Conclave would have no qualms in eradicating those who they perceived to be bad blood.

Whatever. Thula's thoughts were so focused on gaining revenge for the embarrassment and dishonour 452 had dealt to her three months earlier, she no longer cared what the repercussions would be if other transgenics escaped. Her mind was fully focused on finding and killing 452.

As the robust warrior woman combed over the ruins and drew closer to the lone freak flag that perched atop a pile of brick and splintered wood, she prayed to the Snake Goddess that X5-452 was here still. And she hoped to Gods that she'd get to the bitch before Ames White did.

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"I know it's human sentimentality, but I thought this would be appropriate." Alec returned to Ben's grave holding a small statue of the Virgin Mary.

"The Blue Lady." Max whispered. "How did you know?"

"I've heard you talk in your sleep Max." He leant forward and placed the statue atop of the mound of freshly churned earth, pulling Max to her feet as he rose up.

"And when I spotted a little chapel on the way here, I figured I'd have a look around for any spare religious effigies. Obviously, it was meant to be." Alec shrugged, covering up his tenderness with nonchalance. "But now, we gotta go Max. We're living on borrowed time by staying here any longer. We should get to Logan's."

Max refused to move. The world was falling down around them, but that was all the more reason why she had to tell Alec how she felt, whether he returned her feelings or not. Logan had interrupted them the last time, she wasn't going to allow that to happen again.

"Max? You don't have to be afraid. You know I've got your back - I'll never let anyone hurt you."

"I thought I was going to lose you all over again Alec." The words blurted from Max's mouth and she looked down at the ground, as if there was something upon it that could tell her what to say next. "And now I don't want to lose my second chance."

"What do you mean Max?" Alec blinked, his expression captured in a look of disbelief, and then concentration as he tried to focus on Max's words, over top of the sudden bursting thump of his heart.

"I mean... I... when you ran off..." Max felt her cheeks begin to flush with intense heat as she fumbled for words, suddenly feeling as if she'd been shoved upon a stage, beneath a spotlight. "I thought you weren't going to come back."

"You're not gonna lose me. I mean, look at all the times you've told me to piss off or drop dead, and I just keep on coming back, don't I? Face it, I'm like a bad smell lingering around a..." Glancing towards Ben's grave, he figured he'd leave out the word corpse.

Seeing the doubt still written across Max's face, her eyes downcast, Alec closed the gap between them and put one hand lightly one each side her face, tilting it so that she had no choice but to meet his gaze. "Face it, I'll always come back to you Maxie. You couldn't lose me if you tried"

"I told him I was sorry for the way I've treated him, Alec." Taking a deep calming breath, Max figured her best way of telling Alec how she felt about him, would be by telling him what she had told Ben.

"And I also told him Logan's not the one who rocks my world, and that I'd wasted so much time looking for a home..." she paused and watched for his reaction, but his eyes still held uncertainty as to what she was trying to tell him.

She traced her hand up Alec's arm and throat to softly stroked his cheek, marvelling in the soft skin and warmth of his flesh. "I told him I had realised too late, that home was any place where I could find him."

Alec swallowed his diappointment. This was not what he'd hoped to hear. In fact, this was the very opposite of what he wanted to be told.

For months now, he had gritted his teeth over her 'we're not like that' relationship with Logan. At last he decided she had some kind of fixation with making herself miserable, and tried hard to simply accept it. But now what was she saying? She'd been in love with his twin all this time? Alec winced silently as he felt something inside his chest metaphorically break. The idea of her loving Logan... well that was something he had grudgingly accepted. But what was so wrong with him - Alec, that she had to go for the guy whose motto was 'you can never have too many teeth'?

Max saw the overwhelming disappointment in Alec's eyes and realised the stupid mistake she'd made. What was she thinking, telling Alec all of this? Of course he wouldn't want her - why would he after all she had put him through?

And maybe it was just as well that he didn't want her. After all that had happened today, with so many she had cared for dead, and emotions so raw, how could she know if what she felt for him was real and not some kind of post-traumatic stress? How could she suddenly decide in the course of a day that she loved this man, when she had shown him nothing in the past except contempt?

Pulling herself out of his arms, Max realised how stupid she had been for thinking this was the time to be making such assumptions, and for letting down her guard. "I'm sorry Alec. Please don't hate me..."

Taking two stumbling steps backwards, she turned and ran.

Leaving an equally confused Alec to stare after her in defeat.

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Ames White sent a forceful kick into a fallen concrete pillar. In times like this he would have welcomed the feeling of pain brought about by such an action. At least it would offer him some kind of release from the frustration building up within him. But no, he felt the sensation of his booted foot connecting with the pillar, but his body simply refused to register the feeling as anything other than a vague tingle.

Turning towards his team, he began instructing them to spread out further when the distinct sound of footsteps beating across the ground reached his ears. Quickly he scanned the area. The sound echoed off the remnants of buildings, making it hard to pin point the direction the runner was heading in. White swore in frustration, and gestured wildly to his team to spread out in all directions, a fierce expression on his face as he turned about, trying to get a fix on the footfalls.

Finally a figure burst into view, and White grinned madly to see it was indeed 452, running blindly in his direction, and oblivious to the fact that she was about to be fully surrounded by familiars. Stepping out from the shadows of the wreckage he stood by, Ames White raised his gun. Primeval excitement surged within him, the hunter finally had the hunted in his sight... now he just had to decide whether to simply fire a warning shot, or ground the girl permanently.

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Alec kicked himself mentally. What had he done wrong? Why did Max react like that? Had he somehow hurt her feelings simply by maintaining a dumbstruck silence? What else had she expected from him?

Perhaps he was wrong, but it just hadn't seemed appropriate for him to leap with joy at Max's declaration of... what exactly was it that she had told him anyway? In hindsight, Alec realised there was no way Max could have seen Ben as a potential lover. He had been part of her unit, and she regarded her old Manticore unit as family - siblings even. There was just no way she'd ever see Ben as anything more than a brother, even though they weren't biologically related.

And then the light went on inside Alec's head.

Max had thought _he_ was dying in her arms! Had she been trying to say she wanted _him_?

This new theory was surely an absurd one. It certainly went against the long-term 'canon' of Max's attitude towards him. In fact it sounded more like an amateur writer's attempt to twist an established universe in order to manipulate a difficult storyline into a story without burning too many brain cells.

But Alec couldn't dispute what he had heard Max say, and as much as he wasn't sure whether he could believe his ears, he had to find her.

Alec turned in the direction Max had taken off in, and began to run, a nervous sense of urgency putting extra speed into his strides. By the time the flapping Terminal City flag came into view, Alec's stomach was being devoured from within, by an all consuming panic. Something was incredibly wrong.

And when the sound of gun fire rang out into the air, followed by the unmistakable sound of a female's pain filled scream, Alec knew with complete certainty, that he and Max weren't going to be getting out of Terminal City after all. At least, not in the shape and form that he had expected.

**TBC...**


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: During this attempt to 'rewrite' the parts of this story that have always annoyed me, I realise there's too many changes that would be needed... Every time I sat down to figure out which parts to change without fundamentally altering the story's DNA, I'd grow fed up and put it aside for 'later'. Well fiddlesticks, it's been two years now. This so-called 'rewrite' was meant to iron out complications, not create new ones!_

_As you'll see, there's a few scenes running at the same time as the story splits from one character to another. Hope ya can keep up! Feedback appreciated. :)_

* * *

**No Need To Argue - Chapter Four**

******by Sorrow Reminisce**

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"This is the infantry we've been waiting for all day? Y'know White, I expected better from you."

Max tried her best to stand and hide the pain from White and his entourage. She refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing her so weak, but it was difficult when it felt her leg was slowly being consumed by white hot fire. She had been hit - the bullet ripping into her upper thigh, and embedding itself within her flesh.

"Come on now 452" White was amused to see her floundering before him, and his smile was as alien and dangerous as the snake his people were so fixated by. "You know I don't need to haul in an army to finish you pathetic creatures off."

He sauntered closer and waved the gun around, indicating the sorry state of their surroundings. "Look at this dump. You're all half-starved and those that aren't already dead look as if they may as well be..." He paused for a moment when his gaze fell upon a small group of Nomolies who'd been caught by his team and forced to line up against a wall. Screwing up his face in disgust he added, "Actually, half your lot looked dead to start with."

"Screw you."

White's face turned into a sneer. "Thanks for the offer, but I don't do animals."

"Whatever you gotta tell yourself White. Though you must be pretty lonely with nothin' but your hand for company."

White simply gave an enigmatic smile. He'd like to see what a wise-ass she'd be if he were to surgically remove her lower jaw.

"What have you done with my son, 452? You must be getting sick of hearing me ask by now? Why don't you save us all the hassle of monotony and tell me?"

"Why don't ya save yourself the embarrassment of getting your arse handed to you again, and get the hell out? Seriously White, you get off on public humiliation? Because I just don't understand why you keep coming back for more -"

Growing impatient with the whiney chit chat, the familiar turned and lashed out his foot, delivering a solid blow to Max's wounded thigh. The sharp agonising shock coupled with physical loss of muscle function caused her to sprawl to the ground. Grinding her teeth to hold in a scream, she tried to rise, but White's powerful kick had driven the bullet further into the torn muscle and ligaments, rendering her leg useless.

"Now I don't have to worry about you running away." He grinned.

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At the sound of the gunfire, Alec had stopped dead in his tracks, his heart constricting in fear as the echoes of the scream died down. He had blurred towards the source of the commotion and found a vantage point from the second story of a building which was still standing. After surveying the scene for minute it hadn't taken long to realise this was going to be at least a two man job. One transgenic against a dozen or so familiars was a suicide mission, even for Manticore's finest. And even if he could draw White away from Max, she could barely move with her injury.

Most of the transgenics still alive had left TC already, moving out in small groups through a tunnel they'd been working on for months now, in preparation of an event such as this. Plans to stick together as a united nation of transgenics had obviously fallen through. Those that had remained in TC were now in White's custody along with Max. Being that they had spent their lives locked in a basement shunted away out of sight, the Nomolies had been fairly easy for White's familiars to round up.

Alec felt his heart drop at the realisation that he'd have to call on Logan. Logan - Max's shining paragon.

It wasn't that he disliked the guy, it was simply belittling to a transgenic at the best of times, to have to place so much reliance on an ordinary. Okay, maybe he did dislike the guy - just a little. And maybe it was partly the fact that he always seemed to save the day, least in Max's eyes. Whereas Alec had always been perceived by all parties as the one to perpetually screw things up.

Sure, maybe her feelings on the both of them had changed a little over the past months - Max had gradually grown less reliant on Logan, slightly more drawn to Alec as her right-hand man - but old bitterness died hard. Max may have decided during the space of today that she needed him over Logan, but Alec felt this could easily change. The terror of the morning had forced her to seek comfort. And so she had turned to him. Then out of fear - she even felt she needed to _be_ with him. But why? Because somewhere within her soul she felt Logan wouldn't be capable of protecting her when push came to shove? Not that Max would ever admit to needing or wanting any kind of protection...

Well, turns out she did. And now that push had come to shove, the promise Alec had so recently made to Max - to never let anyone hurt her - was already broken. He had failed her. And so too, the words Max had said at Ben's grave would soon be forgotten, as Logan the Cavalier resumed his place on the pedestal once more. And Alec would go back to being a dirt bag. The irresponsible clown who could never do anything right.

That's what made the idea of asking Logan for help so intolerable.

…And then he heard a gun cock behind him.

Alec stood frozen, waiting to see what would happen next.

The sound of a boot tread close to his right side and a gruff voice said, "This your idea of laying low? You've really let your training slide, 494."

"Mole!" As his friend stepped up the window, Alec's sudden grin near split his face in half. Help had come bearing a reptilian guise and despair had no place within Alec's mind any longer. "If ever a prayer had been answered! What the hell are ya doin' here?"

"Saving your sorry ass."

"Yeah Alec, look what we found." Alec turned to find Joshua behind him, waving an M16A2 assault rifle like it were a flag.

"Whoaaah there Josh," Alec grabbed his friend's arm and carefully took the rifle away. "You could take an eye out with that thing, how bout I take it huh?"

"Yeah - I got it for you Alec. We knew you'd get Max out of this bitch!"

Alec realised just then, how glad he was to have a friend like Joshua. It was a warm feeling to have someone place such trust in you. The faithful look in Joshua's eyes gave him confidence in his abilities once more.

"Thanks Josh!" He gave his friend a quick awkward hug, needing all of a sudden the brotherly comradeship. "Now how the hell'd ya get this toy huh?"

Mole turned away from the window and proceeded to enlighten Alec on what they'd been up to the past few hours. "We felt the need to relieve our government of some of their fine weaponry - they can be dangerous in the wrong hands you know. I don't know when they're planning on bringin' their men in, but they haven't shifted yet from outside the gates. Though judging by what they're carrying, I don't wanna be 'round to find out when their next move will be."

"Ha, yeah, wait 'till you see what else we found." Joshua grinned like a mad man as Mole started rattling off their list of freshly acquired artillery.

"This baby in my hands is the MSG90 sniper rifle, minus the bipod unfortunately... I'm sure you've seen it before?" Alec nodded and Mole continued, "There's a couple M14 mines, an RPG-18 grenade launcher and two AKMS assault rifles. These guys are pretty damn scared of us."

Pausing for a moment to take a breath and bask in Alec's look of adoration, Mole then continued with his list. "What else... we have a Makarov 9mm - with silencer may I add - and heh heh, here's the best part - a box of sheet explosive - that'll set off some lovely fireworks!"

"And don't forget the woollen hat!" added Joshua, who then pulled a grey hat from his pocket and put it on his head.

"How the hell did you get all this?" Alec's face was lit like a Christmas tree as he pondered upon the list of treasures. With this kind of back-up, they could certainly figure out how to deal with White and his accompanying pack of monsters.

"Noticed a supply truck not far outside the fence. Idiot guards weren't hard to disable." Mole shook his head at the incompetency of mere human soliders, then caught the X5's expression. "Don't get your knickers in a twist Princess. I didn't kill 'em. No need to lecture me on the importance of maintaining good public relations..."

Alec shrugged. "Hey, I'm not Max."

Looking over at Joshua, Alec couldn't help but smile at the dog-boy's excitement over a stupid hat. It amazed Alec how someone cooked up in Manticore, forced to survive by his own devices and then hunted by heartless humans, could still maintain a degree of childlike innocence in the midst of all this horror.

Not wanting to disappoint his friend - his brother - Alec grinned broadly. "Well, I don't know what we're gonna do with the rest of this stuff, but thank God for the hat!"

Mole stood and watched dubiously while Joshua broke into laughter and swept Alec up into a bear hug, lifting him off the ground in the process. Ignoring Alec's spluttering pleas for help, he turned back to the window and trained his rifle on the back of White's head once more.

"I've got a clear shot, but White's little bumboys are holding guns on our own. I can't chance it."

"That's okay buddy," Alec had wriggled free of Joshua's grasp and clapped Mole on the back, nearly causing him to squeeze off a round.

"I'll do the predictable thing every great hero does - I'll cause a noticeably large distraction, and our dim-witted friends will surely decide to investigate."

"How the hell do ya come up with that shit Alec?"

"Who needs years of specialist military training when you've got TV?"

Mole snorted, and got back to business. "Looks like White's not part of the original attack - he's got his own agenda. I don't know how the hell he slipped in without the army noticing, but I'm guessin' he bribed someone to turn a blind eye. I've checked our tunnel, and it's still holding, but it was pretty damaged from the attack. Our window of opportunity for getting outta here is closing, so we - "

Joshua moved towards the door, nose the air. 'Hey guys, I uh... I think someone's coming."

Alec looked to him in amazement, what Joshua lacked in Manticore's military criteria, he apparently made up for in his sense of smell.

Therefore, the transgenics were fully prepared when two familiars burst into the room a few minutes later.

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White was going to get the information he needed out of 452 at any cost. He considered what leverage he could use, current favourite being to start killing off the group of sideshow freaks his men had rounded up. Then again, there was always Thula. He knew the Phalanx bitch wanted to kill 452 just as much as he. But while she wanted to simply kill the girl, with perhaps a side dish of torture in the process, he wanted to extract information from the transgenic - _while_ torturing her.

"Where's lover boy 494 today? I haven't seen my favourite pain in the ass for a while."

Max shrugged, and replied nonchalantly, "guess he didn't make it."

White grinned like a fox in a burrow overflowing with rabbits. She couldn't fool him with her tough girl attitude; he'd seen that pathetic look at the mention of her breeding mate. It would give him immense satisfaction to see the proud tough 'Max' be reduced to a snivelling little wench like every other girl.

"Or maybe he's going to play the classic hero role, swoop down and snatch you from my evil clutches huh?"

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As the first familiar entered the room, Alec stepped out from behind the door and delivered a powerful kick to the middle of his lower back that would've broken an Ordinary's spine. He then followed it through with a sharp side kick to the back of the assailant's head that sent him reeling over the top of a table.

Smiling, knowing this would not deter the familiar, Alec raised his eyebrows and tapped his foot, waiting impatiently for his playmate to come back for his second dose. When the familiar did leap up and over the table, he was greeted by a transgenic fist slamming into his face.

Alec had the momentary pleasure of hearing the crunch of bone the familiar intercepted his next punch and twisted his arm up hard behind his back. Ignoring the explosive pain that came of having his shoulder nearly wrenched from its socket, he dug his feet into the floor and drove himself and the familiar backwards, sending them out the door and into the hallway.

As they hit the ground, the familiar was on Alec in an instant. Picking him up, he slammed the transgenic against a wall with enough force to send him smashing through it. The pain was incredible, and Alec blinked groggily against the darkness that threatened to close in on him, before shaking his head and forcing back the shadows of unconsciousness.

As his attacker leapt forward, Alec blurred, grabbing a piece of sharp wood that had splintered from the broken wall behind him and drove it into his throat before kicking him backwards onto the floor. Running the back of his hand across his forehead to wipe away the light sheen of sweat that had begun to form, he bounded back up the stairs to see how his friends were holding up.

Meanwhile, with only one familiar between them to deal with, Mole and Joshua had made short work of him and Alec rushed into the room to find Joshua dragging a body behind the desk and Mole once again admiring his new toys. In fact, it appeared by Mole's buoyancy that at least one person in the room had thoroughly enjoyed himself.

"Well that was fun." Alec winced as he gingerly rotated his arm. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick of playing Hide and Seek - I think it's time for a little Seek and Destroy."

Mole grinned, "Let's figure this bitch out."

Alec's mood turned serious as he put his mind into getting Max back. They had some major unfinished business between them and he was getting sick to death of these ongoing interruptions. If it wasn't Logan's ill-timing, or his own stupidity for misinterpreting Max's words, it was White. Sometimes it seemed his life was a story written by some kind of sadist who never wanted to see anyone happy.

"We don't have much time." Taking a breath, Alec braced himself for what he had to say next. He knew no one was going to like it.

"Joshua, you have to stay here. You're in charge of looking after the grenade launcher and explosives."

Mole looked at Alec as if he had just lost his marbles. "You're leaving JOSHUA with a grenade launcher and enough C-4 to... oh man, we're all gonna die! Tell me, you ever recall seeing Joshua receive any kind of training in Manticore? Because far as I know, he spent his life hiding in the basement."

"Yeah Alec. Mole's right..."

"I'm not expectin' you blow the building up!" Alec too wondered just how wise this was, but the words had already left his mouth so he just had to follow it through. "Mole and I are gonna get these familiars out of our way, so you'll only use the launcher if, for some reason, we need a distraction. As for the explosives… just leave them alone altogether."

Joshua and Mole continued to look at him dumb-founded.

"Just don't touch anything." Alec picked out the small Makarov for his dog-friend. "It's accurate, and dependable. Just in case."

Neither were convinced, and understandably so, but Alec felt it was safer to leave Joshua behind for this one. Giving in to Alec's authority, Mole gave Joshua a run down on what to do. Alec situated the grenade launcher near the window so that if absolute worst came to worst and Joshua needed them back ASAP, he could get their attention.

By blowing a sizeable chunk out of a building.

"We'll come back for ya buddy, just keep an eye on Max and the others."

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With two of White's men down, ten remained, as far as they knew. And that figure didn't include White himself. The odds were shockingly out of their favour, but Alec had been in trickier situations and always managed to come out whole - well, mostly. Explaining to a drunken redneck and his bonehead friends, why you're lying in bed with his wife and sister, is indeed a tricky situation to be in. At least Alec had the advantage of being clothed for today's fiasco.

Deciding more ground would be covered if they split up, Mole climbed to the top of a shattered building and disappeared into the tangle of misshapen steel and concrete so he could set himself up with his sniper rifle.

Alec chose to slip down a side street and investigate a portion of TC mostly unaffected by the morning's series of blasts. He awkwardly climbed a fire escape, having to use one arm to do so, and traveled by the roof tops of buildings as much as possible. There was no sign of White's men.  
As he was about to try a different direction, he saw movement on the ground within his peripheral vision. Ducking down, he crept closer to the edge of the building and peered below to see what had caught his eye.

Surprised to see it was an ordinary - one of the unfortunates who had taken up residence in TC long before the transgenics arrived, he started to rise to his feet. But then another man rounded the corner and also spotted the homeless guy. Alec trained his sights on the new intruder.

Silent as death, the stealth-like apparition approached the old man who shuffled along the roadside, oblivious to everything but his own mutterings. At last as the shadow of the silent stalker towered over him. The vagrant looked up and cleared his throat, but he never had a chance to utter a word. In that instant a hand snaked out and grabbed his throat, pulling him forward to check for a barcode before snapping his neck. All in one lightening quick fluid motion.

Alec kept the crosshair of his rifle centred on the assassin's head and fired. The familiar crumpled to the ground, dead before he had the chance to realise life was no longer in his hands.

Hearing a sound behind him, Alec rolled to the right, just in time to avoid the bullet that punched the spot where he had just been. His rifle skidded away and teetered on the edge of the roof. Gritting his teeth against the steady throb of his injured shoulder Alec reached for it but the familiar took another shot, this time hitting the gun and sending it hurtling towards the ground.

Feeling as if he were being toyed with, Alec rolled swiftly to his feet and blurred into action, zigzagging towards a sheltered entry way that stood between them. The familiar moved with speed towards the roof access, planning to intercept him on the other side. Anticipating this, Alec leapt to the top of the shelter and off the other side, landing on the familiar and sending them both tumbling like cats across the roof top.

As they sprung away from each other, Alec's eyes widening in recognition.

"Couldn't get enough of me the first time, huh?" He rose warily to his feet. "Bitch."

The dark-haired Phalanx flashed a cold smile before lunging forward, using the butt of her rifle to thwack across Alec's head in reply. Ignoring the flash of pain, he found himself on the defense as she savagely threw herself at him, her moves so fast and fluid he barely had a chance to protect himself from half of her blows. As he tried to wrestle away his attacker's gun, she drove her elbow into the back of his head and for a second, the world faded out and then Alec found himself being flung away like a rag doll. The Phalanx fired her rifle, and the bullet skimmed the side of Alec's head - just - and disappeared behind him.

Hoping his attacker wouldn't shoot again, he held his breath and lay as still and silent as a cadaver on an autopsy table. When he sensed the familiar was close enough, Alec flipped up from his back with transgenic speed, his feet connected with the underside of her jaw, sending her head snapping upwards.

The familiar fell to the ground motionless. Her neck appeared broken, but by experience Alec knew better than to bank his money on such an assumption. Picking up the gun he had sought possession of, he fired a couple rounds into the fallen Phalanx before shaking blood from his eyes. Four down. And with any luck, Mole had taken out a few of his own.

He could assume that with the Phalanx here, Max was in even greater danger if the red-haired bitch got her talons into her. Sick of hunting wannabe demi-gods while Max lay injured at White's feet, Alec decided to head back to the hideout and get his hands on something a little more powerful then the rifle he'd recovered from the ground. He had an idea on what he could do with that C-4.

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Mole was a guy who preferred to shoot first and damn the questions. He was at his happiest when he had a gun in his hand and a cigar in his mouth. At the moment he wasn't very happy - he only had half his wish-list. Max had never got back to him about those cigars.

Sooner or later he knew that some unwelcome pest would come along so he could have an excuse to pull the trigger. Any familiar heading in the westerly direction would surely pass by him as they returned to the man they served (like the gimps they were).

As short-tempered as Mole was, when it came to doing his job, he was as patient as the eternity of Grandfather Time.

It was just as well, because for over an hour he'd been tucked away in his makeshift hidey-hole. The sun was slowly beginning to sink behind him and he wondered just how much longer this little drama would take to unfold.

* * *

Joshua too had grown bored. Except unlike Mole, who habitually focused on the objective, Joshua had decided to play with the loot they'd lifted from the Army. He had listened carefully to Mole's stern warning on using the grenade launcher within the enclosed room - gases would be released from the back blast and so on... This completely defeated the purpose of using the weapon for a distraction, and so he took out one of the M14 mines instead.

Wondering exactly how it worked, Joshua sauntered across the room and set it down on a small table, then walked back to the stash and opened the wooden box containing M118 charges and blasting caps. The flexible explosives were much like the clay he'd recently begun to model as his paint supplies had dwindled. Making himself comfortable by the window once more, and with a handful of the C-4, he laughed to himself as he manipulated one block into a shape something resembling a dog.

"Joshua 97, ha ha."

When that game finished, he leafed through a bunch of decade-old newspapers lying on the floor. Old news - boring . And so he threw them down atop of the forgotten M14. Soon his attention was focused on the remaining two AKMS. These pieces were so much cooler then the little hand-gun Alec had given him! He snatched up the shiniest assault rifle and crept through the building, pretending to stalk invisible enemies…

Curious about his surroundings, Joshua made his way down the stairs. He passed the guy Alec had stabbed in the throat (who it must be said, was most certainly dead), but couldn't find much of interest - bare computer terminals, scattered rubbish and decrepit furniture. No bad guys for him to point the gun at.

Eventually he found himself in what must have once been a staff kitchen. Realising he was famished, he started opening cupboards, hoping to come across an ancient can of spaghetti or two. Half a dozen slammed doors later, he'd found nothing but a container of dried up coffee and a few disintegrated teabags. Finally, there was one more cupboard left, and he figured that knowing his luck, it would hold a nest of large mutant rats, crazed with hunger and eager to pounce upon a man with too much dog in his cocktail.

Cautiously opening the door, he found it was not a cupboard at all but the entrance to a basement floor. He stood at the top step for a moment, trying to decide what he wanted to do. He could go back and stand watch - but he really didn't think he was of much use; or he could find out what was down the stairs. After all, it could be a good place for the Nomolies to hide in once his friends got them away from White. It could be a way out for them all.

At last he made up his mind, "back to the basement, ha!" And down the steps he went, shutting the door behind him.

Moments after he descended the stairs, a team of White's minions entered through the front door, in search of two missing comrades who hadn't radioed in when they were due to. Seeing the body of one of their own lying at the foot of the stairs, they signaled wordlessly to each other and quietly made their way up to the second floor.

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When White received a radio transmission from a group of his men who had found two bodies and a stack of military weapons within a building close by, his anger immediately began to bubble to the surface. Now he had two men dead and another two unaccounted for. He didn't like knowing there was someone out there killing off his men, and he was willing to bet money on just who it was.

Scowling in dark anger, he walked over to 452, who had apparently clawed her way to her feet - or one of them anyway - and was glaring at him, no doubt thinking up some deep and meaningful remark. She was so much more hassle then she was worth.

Taking hold of her by her chin, he stepped so close he could see the black flecks in her eyes. Lowering his voice to a whisper, he murmured in her ear, "Well it looks as though your freak boyfriend is making an effort to rescue his poor damsel in distress. That means nothing progressive is going to happen between us until he crawls out from whatever rock he's currently under and gives himself up. I don't want any more nasty surprises you see."

Max chose to say nothing. She knew after the first time White captured her, Alec would never just desert her. But this time she hadn't been sure. He'd looked so miserable when she told him how she felt that she'd half expected him to leave her in TC to find her way out alone. Her exhilaration that he was still here - helping her - was marred by the absolute hatred she sensed radiating off White in waves. For the first time, she felt truly afraid of just what he'd do. Of what he'd do to Alec.

Stepping back from the abomination before him, White looked around at the smouldering remains of the transgenics' home - he felt so proud of his work. Raising his voice, he addressed the wider community. "Okay 494, you can come out now. Much as it's always fun to play with you, I've no time for hero games today."

He didn't get any response, but then, that's what he'd expected.

Sighing, he turned to 452 and considered her once more. Sure he needed her to get his son, unless of course he could get his hands on Eyes Only... But then, he'd need the bitch for him too. Either way he looked at it, he just couldn't straight out kill her. That pissed him off no end.

Deciding at last what he was going to do, he raised his gun and gave 452 a genuine smile, before he shot her once more, his smile growing further as she collapsed for the last time to the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note:** Thank you so much to those who have left their feedback on this story. I was just reading over the reviews again tonight and it made me so happy to see people are enjoying this. :)_

_Off-topic: For those here at fanfiction net who may not already be aware, Round Three of The Broken World Awards is still open for nominations of your favourite DA fan fiction, fan art and fan sites. The link is in my profile so please swing by and check it out!_

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**No Need To Argue - Chapter Five**

**by Sorrow Reminisce**

**ll l lll ll l lll**

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Max took a deep breath, reminding herself how long she could hold it for. The bullet hole in her upper abdomen was only the circumference of a pencil, but the blood seeping out was bubbling as air gurgled through the hole, slipping right of out of her like a punctured tire.

A transgenic could cope with a collapsed lung for a while. But by the murderous look in White's eyes, she figured if his latest shot didn't kill her, he still had a few rounds left to go.

As much as it made him happy to know the transgenic threat would be over in such a short time, White was growing increasingly angry that nothing could ever go EXACTLY the way he wanted it to. He'd shot 452 to lure out her trusty side kick. Never turn your back on a transgenic. Especially such a slippery weasel as 494.

"I don't think your girlfriend has time for this 494. Haven't ya noticed she's been shot? Quite badly too judging by the fact she can hardly breathe. I can imagine how her lungs are filling with blood as I speak…"

He itched with curiosity as to what 452 was trying to say at that point through her gasps. Pity her injuries were now that much worse. She had apparently lost the ability to mouth off at him.

"Ironically, I'm going to have to save her life." He loved the euphoric high of playing God. "I need her alive 494, at least for a little while. Now unless she's immortal or this place has functional surgical equipment tucked away someplace..." He glanced about, knowing full well if there had been, it was destroyed now. "I'd say your prompt co-operation is the best chance she has."

Growing impatient, he raised his voice until it bounced off the fragmented walls. "I'm not leaving here WITHOUT YOU 494. If _'Max'_ dies in the meantime, it'll be your own guilty conscience that burdens the remainder of your days."

He shook his head and looked around for a nice place to sit. For all their supposed genius, these genetic freaks could be so stupid sometimes. This day was growing that much longer.

* * *

When Mole heard a gunshot ring out in the direction of the small open car park where White held Max and the Nomolies, he just knew he'd chosen the wrong place to go fishing. Not that he'd ever actually been fishing before, but he could imagine being cooped up in this hole while all the action was takin' place elsewhere, would be similar to sitting idle in a boat and watching the fish bite everyone else's line except your own.

He hesitated only for a moment as to whether he should hold his position, but curiosity and well, concern even, proved too much to bear. Questioning how a psycho like White could be legally entitled to a gun, he leapt down from his perch and stealthily made his way to where the big fish were.

Mole hid within the skeletal remains of a block of shops that lay between White and the hideout they'd left Joshua in. From his position, he couldn't actually see anything of significance. There was a half tumbled wall in the way and to get closer would risk exposure to himself. But he could hear White basking in the sound of his own voice, and waited patiently to learn what snappy comebacks Max would deliver.

Surprisingly, the only voice to be heard was White's own, yet although crazy as he was, he didn't seem to be talking to himself.

Deciding he was getting nowhere fast, Mole chanced being seen and crept forward so he could peer over the wall. The sight that met his eyes would have made his blood run cold - if it weren't already. Max lay unmoving on the ground and it appeared from his quick glance, that a significant amount of blood was collecting beside her. Though what the extent of the damage was, he couldn't be sure.

White's voice bounced off the shattered walls of nearby buildings, "You're wasting time 494. Now unless you want to find out whether your breed has nine lives, I'd suggest you get on out here." Cold laughter could be heard in White's voice as he added, "Your girlfriend's already half dead - see? She doesn't even respond when I kick her!"

And with that, Mole heard the unmistakable sound of a boot connecting with a body. And the only complaint to accompany it was a soft gurgling moan.

_'Aaww, well this aint good.'_ Even inside his own head, his voice sounded gruff. Enough of this pussyfooting round, if White succeeded in killing Max, he'd never know the delight of a cigar ever again. And that was just not on.

White wanted Alec huh? Well, Mole was going to make sure White got what he wanted.

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452 had lost so much vital fluid, her body was going into shock. Frothy red liquid continued to bubble from the wound as she struggled intensely to draw in each breath.

White would have paid money to get inside her head and hear those silent screams. But he knew her injury was serious, and if he wanted his son back, he'd have to keep her alive until the time was right to put this animal out of it's misery. Once again, he belated that now was not that time.

Ripping the bottom off his own shirt, White pulled the transgenic into a sitting position so he could remove her blood soaked jacket and bind the wound. He then lay her on her wounded side to allow the functioning lung to continue doing it's job. This was only going to buy a small amount of time.

"Come on 494! Don't ya care about your girl? The wretch is coughing blood all over herself, and I don't know if even you Frankensteins can survive without THAT!"

The sucking sound coming from 452's chest when she breathed in was caused by pneumothorax - air leaking into the chest cavity. Every breath was a struggle because the injury prevented the affected lung from expanding with each inhalation - otherwise known as a collapsed lung. In a war zone, this condition would result in death. Death being a clear certainty for her, if 494 didn't get his arse into gear and come play the hero.

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Alec was within sight of the hideout and so far there was no sign of familiars. It seemed too good to be true, but perhaps Mole had succeeded in taking the rest out.

Opposite the back entrance of their building now, he looked up at the second story and considered how he could scale the wall. The windows lacked ledges and, had this place EVER had a fire escape? Oh well, there was always the cliché drainpipe, but he was an injured man! This game just wasn't fair.

Between the gunshot wounds and the friendly handshakes those Familiars had, Alec wondered if he'd ever be whole again. Berating himself for letting his good looks go down the drain, he prepared to climb the decrepit one attached to the wall.

Five metres and three minutes later, Alec decided it was ridiculous really, a grown man trying to revive his lost childhood by playing Spiderman. It wasn't that this wall was defeating him - he could get up it if he really wanted to. There was truth in the saying 'transgenic's never knock', but that was no reason why it wouldn't be nice to use the front door for a change. This method of entry was just lacklustre without an appreciative female audience.

Making the... well okay maybe it was closer to a metre... drop to the ground, he glanced about and ran around the side of the building. Time was a wasting, and he had the disturbing feeling that dog-boy had been left alone for far, far too long.

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When Joshua had toyed with the M14 mine earlier, he had unknowingly rotated the pressure plate from its safety to its armed position. The fact that he had managed to avoid blowing himself up was a small miracle. Oblivious to how narrowly he averted death, Joshua ambled down the stairs and into the pitch black cellar.

While it was unfortunate that there was no source of light at all, he was used to dwelling in basements and held no real concern as to what he might encounter. His canine instinct dictated he should follow his nose, and he was curious to learn just where this was going to lead him.

The air was thick, stale and indicated there was no other way out of here except via the stairs he'd come down - but wait - now he could smell the outside. The outside air wasn't at all fresh but rather carried the pungent stench of charred buildings, and other things he didn't want to contemplate. Joshua could smell all these the further he crept into the basement.

Reaching out his hands, he felt a wall that crumbled slightly beneath his touch. If he were to dig for a while, he'd surely get closer to the outside. But it wasn't necessary to dig. As his hand roamed further over the wall, it came to an end and Joshua found he was pressing into nothingness, a gap in the wall. A way out.

After spending a fleeting second pondering the sensibility of his actions, Joshua clambered into the gap, finding it marginally wide enough to fit his large tall body. Completely unaware that there were men now in a part of the house where he had been only a few minutes earlier, he wriggled deeper into the hole and hauled himself through what was remarkably appearing to be some kind of tunnel

The familiars moved silently within the building, searching for the transgenics they knew had been in here at some point. Wordlessly they agreed to lay in wait. Someone had gone to the effort of stealing some fine weapons - they'd be bound to return for them.

One of the familiars spotted something unusual on the floor by the window. Walking over to investigate, he saw it was a dog - made of C-4. Pondering upon what this could mean, he turned to show the others, stepping down onto a pile of newspapers as he did so.

All within the silent room heard a quiet 'click' - all except the one who held the dog. Lost in thought as he was, he didn't notice his brethren's collective look of alarm as he lifted his foot from the mess of papers…

Half way around the side of the building, Alec had a change of heart again, deciding it would be best to find Mole before going back into their hideout. Joshua would surely be safe just a fraction longer. He had developed a plan for wrangling Max away that was both brilliant and completely nonsensical - therefore he needed his two transhuman friends to bounce ideas off.

Running now, Alec pondered upon his thoughts, not paying attention to the objects his feet were flying over in his need to get his girl back. His girl - that had a beautiful ring to it... smiling to himself, he placed one foot in the centre of a mangled car tire and for the second time that day, found himself being flung like a rag-doll to the ground

At that same moment Alec was picking himself back up and swearing at the unjustness of it all, whatever great words of wisdom the C4 dog had imparted to the familiar were forever lost, as the M14 mine which had lain concealed beneath the trash detonated...

Causing the entire case of C4 to in turn explode, thus taking the entire building and it's inhabitants with it.

Wiping a trickle of blood from his eyes, Alec was just about to step forward once more when the wall he had so recently given up on, disintegrated. Hitting him like a ton of bricks.

Literally.

This time when the transgenic hit the ground, he didn't get back up again.

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The earth itself seemed to roar in anger as the explosion rocked the western end of Terminal City. Those structures which had been hanging on by a thread tumbled to the ground, and the air squealed and grinded with the sound of a shifting wasteland.

White was flung over top of Max, unwillingly finding himself sheltering her from rocks which fell like shrapnel. Lucky for him that he couldn't feel pain.

The surviving Nomolies had earlier been forced into an old broken van which sat beside the debris of an apartment block. Now cries of terror and pain could be heard from behind the van's tinted windows as what was left of the structure collapsed atop of them, forever muffling their guttural screams.

When the fragments finally stopped falling, White moved hastily away from Max, disgusted at denying himself the opportunity to see her inflicted with any further pain. Looking at her unconscious form, he figured it wouldn't have made any difference anyway.

* * *

Mole had been heading towards the hideout from the opposite direction when he saw Alec and quickly ducked out of sight. Now would most certainly not be a good time for him to run into Alec while he was sorting out the bait with which to snare White.

When their refuge exploded, he saw Alec go down beneath a staggering amount of rubble and cringed. That's gotta hurt.

As he drew closer, Mole was relieved to see the pile wasn't as big as he had first thought, but still he hurried to dig the X5 out from beneath it. There wasn't much time.

Finally pulling Alec clear, he could see no life threatening body trauma, the guy was just suffering from concussion so it would seem. Considering what he was about to do, it was a blessing in disguise that his friend would not be conscious enough to know what was happening - would not be able to protest.

Shrugging aside any guilt towards what he was about to do, he left Alec where he was and went to check on White. He now had a body to conveniently place within sight of the lunatic and he needed to know what was going on in the other camp.

Maybe one day someone would forgive him for this. No. No Max would never forgive him. She'd probably make it her personal vendetta to hunt him down and disembowel him.

He had stood in the shadows today and witnessed his transgenic friends begin to sort their shit out at last. Funny to think that until they'd come along, he wouldn't have given an X5 the time of day. And now here he was trying to help save mankind. Because as much as he knew his next actions were gonna get him in a world of shit if he ever made it out of here alive - that was kinda what he was trying to do.

Help save mankind.

Max needed urgent medical attention - that much was for sure. And as sick as it made him feel to admit it, there was absolutely no way she was going to get it without White. A group of transgenics couldn't just burst in on a staffed hospital, not even with Eyes Only's contacts. And White would keep Max alive, for a while at least. Until Mole could figure something else out.

Before White would give Max the help she needed, he wanted proof that Alec would no longer be a threat. If White took Alec in alive, both X5's would be better off dead. White would use one against the other to extract the information he needed, then kill them both.

And so as much as it went against the few good morals Manticore had given him, Mole was going to provide White with proof that he'd never have to worry about Alec's interference again.

After scouting out a place to put the X5 where he could be found by one of White's men, he slunk away back to his friend and looked over him once more.

Picking up the body beside him, Mole grimly strode down to the car park where a matter of life and death lay literally ahead of him. At least this way, Max could never blame Alec for what was going to happen.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: **Two updates in one night! The things I get up to when my daughter is on holiday with her nana. Okay, these chapters were written a long time ago, but hey... I thought I had lost chapter 6 and onwards of NNTA the last time my computer threw a hissy fit and crashed, but as you can see, I found a backup. Figure I'll post it before my computer packs it in again!_

_Entirely irrelevant: As my cats like to keep me company while I'm at the computer, I thought you might just want to know one of them is currently sitting on the monitor - with his butt hanging over the edge and tail draping across the screen. That's a lovely view Badger. Or not. Okay, on with the story..._

* * *

**No Need To Argue - Chapter Six**

**by Sorrow Reminisce**

**ll l lll ll l lll**

* * *

Screaming. The world seemed to be filled with screaming. On and on and on it went at various pitches, and it was just one more thing which was grating on White's nerves. "Would someone shut those creatures up?" He pointed to a blonde-haired familiar who had started towards the scene of the explosion. "You! Put those damned mutants out of their life long misery."

The man turned back towards the van and drew his gun.

"No, no wait." It wasn't often White felt a change of heart - that enabled the ability to accept he actually had a heart. "You go on, find out what happened, see if 494's corpse is amongst all that crap."

White walked to the vehicle in which the Nomolies were trapped. He peered in and side stepped the arms that reached out to him, begging for help. "And to think Noah had to build an ark to achieve this."

Disappointed to find there was neither a bearded lady nor a two headed man, White grew sick of the sideshow at last. He wanted to see what the rest of the circus had to offer. And so it was with great relief that he emptied the chamber of his gun into the van and indulged in the bliss of silence once more.

Feeling satisfied with himself, he strolled over to investigate the thorn that was forever in his side. She appeared still alive. But he was taking a pretty big chance in her transgenic abilities and it wouldn't pay if she up and died on him at this stage in the game.

With great disappointment, White decided they were going to have to leave without 494 after all.

"Sir!"

As White picked up the transgenic, the blonde familiar returned bearing a body. Dropping it unceremoniously to the ground he smiled. "It's 494 sir."

White looked down at the body that lay heaped at his feet and laughed. "Well well, that's just about the best news I've had since these freaks broke outta Manticore. Bring him. I'm going to remove his barcode and feed it to 452 on a plate!"

With a smirk, White motioned to the remaining familiars and as covertly as they had arrived, they departed Terminal City.

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When Sketchy arrived to work that morning, he was surprised to find his co-workers standing silent before the TV and watching in horror as news footage replayed the attack on Terminal City. Shocked to the core, Sketchy glanced about for Original Cindy then, hearing sobs coming from the adjoining room, the blonde bike messenger tip-toed around the enthralled group of Jam Pony employees and stepped into Normal's office

Original Cindy was no where to be seen, but in the confinements of the messy little room, his boss sat in tears. Part of his distress was caused by the sight of such negligent employees. But some would be surprised to see him shed tears over the destruction of what had become a place of refuge for the transgenics, when not so long ago he had desired this very thing. The hard-minded, uncaring boss of Jam Pony wept with utter conviction that his Golden Boy and Jem's dear sweet baby could not possibly have survived the damage that had been wrought upon the toxic waste dump they called home.

No work was to be done this day, least not so far as Sketchy was concerned. He decided the best - the _only - _thing that he could do, would be to go to TC himself and find his friends. They had to be alive, there was just no way something like the total destruction of their home could lay them down.

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A few hours later, Sketchy was still having a hard time getting close enough to Terminal City to find a section of fence he could creep through. The National Guard had been fending off civilians and reporters since the first air missile strike and his New World Weekly ID had done nothing to gain him access further into the crowd. Although his meandering had served one purpose at least; he'd come across an encouragingly large amount of mixed feelings on the events of the day.

As easily as Normal had been able to change his views on transgenics after the birth of Jem's baby - thus changing the direction of his fanaticism, so were many others able to reconsider if they too had been hasty in their judgement. And when the President then tried to cover himself by announcing he had not authorised the bombing, this of course added further fuel to the fires of civil unrest.

Sketchy could see one hell of a front page article within all of this - and to the transgenics favour. But the idea no longer excited him when it was glaringly obvious that there would be little or no transgenics left to defend. Wandering away from the crowd, he spotted a doorway where he could sit and allow the events of the day to sink in.

Minutes later, as he stared numbly at the high security fence opposite him, a group of men approached from within Terminal City and boldly made their way out through a conveniently well hidden gap. Sketchy started in shock when he recognised one of the men from the stand-off at Jam Pony a month or so earlier. And then he felt his heart plummet when he identified the girl carried in his arms. Max..

Grabbing the phone from his pocket, Sketchy keyed in the licence plate of the SUV the men were stepping into and texted it to Original Cindy. She'd know what to do with it.

As he continued to watch, another man appeared (these buggers were sneaky with the way they just kept popping up). He too was carrying someone. Sketchy didn't get a look at who it was before the body was shunted into the vehicle, but he had a horrible feeling that he already knew.

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As the SUV pulled away from the curb, White glanced out of the window and met the wide eyes of a blonde-haired boy who sat within a doorway. Strange, he recognised him from somewhere. Oh well, shrugging it off, White turned his attention back to the girl beside him as the car drove away from the remains of Terminal City and through the darkening streets of Seattle.

She was in a much worse state then he'd intended when he shot her for the second time. In fact she'd be lucky to survive the journey to her temporary new home.

"Stop here." He ordered the driver as they approached a small doctor's surgery. Good thing this one wasn't open after hours.

The car pulled up around the back of the clinic and White hauled Max out while one of his men busted in the back door. Throwing her onto the examination table in the surgery, he pulled open the drawers and cupboards until he found what he was looking for.

After removing her shirt, he unwrapped an 18-gauge needle and stabbed it into Max's chest to release the pressure from the built-up air. He then attached a catheter so that her crushed lung could have a chance to re-expand, and taped it in place before carrying her back to the waiting vehicle.

He couldn't help but laugh at the irony. Here he was, saving the girl who, if allowed to live, would cause the destruction of his entire race. Stick that on a Hallmark card.

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Making the most of this window of opportunity the NSA agent and his weirdos had given him, Sketchy ran over to the security fence and slipped through the broken wire. Dusk was closing in, and he had no idea what he would find within transgenic central.

"Oh man.." Aghast at the ruins surrounding him, Sketchy pulled out his camera to snap a few shots. Unaware that he had company until he found himself being lifted a foot off the ground by the back of his shirt.

Choking on the neckline of his t-shirt, Sketchy kicked his legs uselessly. And then he felt the pressure released from his throat as he fell to the ground atop a pile of broken crates and assorted rubbish.

"The hell ya think you're doin' here kid?"

Looking up warily, Sketchy blanched in fright at the face that stared intently at him. Then realisation sunk in and he scrambled to his feet, fumbling over his words as his mind struggled to retain coherent thought.

"Hey, hey you're the lizard man… Mouse… uh.. Gerbil… Mole! Right? Oh dude, I saw some guys take Max! They uh, came through a hole in the fence and took off in uh…"

Gibbering and half fearful that this somewhat pissed off transgenic might in some way hold him responsible for the existence of the entire human race, Sketchy stepped back - and sprawled to the ground amid a tangle of his own feet. "Ow…"

Mole simply stared at the human for a moment before stating "get a grip", and continuing in the direction of the security fence.

"Hey!" Sketchy hurried to unknit himself and follow after the transhuman. "What happened to Max? Why wasn't she kickin' their asses? They're only NSA, right?"

Without turning or breaking his stride, Mole replied in a neutral voice, "She's got a pretty nasty bullet wound in her - kinda makes it hard to kick ass when you're dying. And they're a little more than 'NSA'."

Sketchy stopped and stared open mouthed in shock. Finally, his mind was barraged by a new set of questions and they tumbled out of his mouth without restraint. "So dude, what agency are they from? And what're they gonna do with her? And hey, was that Alec I saw gettin' lugged away with her? What're we gonna do dude?"

Mole let out an exaggerated sigh before turning to the human. Why couldn't this kid just shut up and go away? If it wasn't bad enough that his plan had gone sideways, now he had to deal with this shit!

"I'm figurin' that White won't let her die until he's got his son's location. Alec is… just don't ask.. And if ya don't get out of my _face_… I'm gonna chew it off!"

Sketchy blanched a little but as he watched Mole pass through the fence, a new thought occurred to him. Running after the transhuman, he shouted, "Hey, you can't go out there, Halloween's over man!"

Mole stopped and glared at the ordinary, this was about the point where he'd have to get the kid to back off in a more obvious fashion. Gross facial disfigurement perhaps.

"Sorry dude, I mean, you know, people will stare at you. And then when they've finished staring they'll pick up their tire irons and well, you know…" Sketchy drifted off into silence as he struggled to interpret what the look on Mole's face could mean. Did he want to eat him or did he just want to rip off his head and shove it up his… _cringe_

"Look.." Sketchy waggled his phone in front of Mole. "I took their license plate and sent it to a friend - I'll ring her, okay?"

Silence from the transhuman. Well that was some progress.

Sketchy scrolled down to Original Cindy's phone number and waited with growing unease for her to pick up. Finally on the fifth ring, she answered, thus giving Sketch something to concentrate on other than the unnerving stillness of the lizard man before him.

_Sketch. Where you at_? Original Cindy's voice was, for obvious reasons, strained with anxiety.

"I'm in TC with Mole. The bad guys have got Max … OC, she's hurt pretty bad. Did ya get the plate?"

_Yeah, Logan's tracin' it now. Put Alec on the phone? We've got a little job for him._

Sketchy's face fell. "Dude, I think Alec's with Max."

The phone was silent for a moment as Original Cindy relayed this information to Logan in the background. When she returned to the phone, the concern in her voice had become even more pronounced.

_We're onto it okay? Just sit tight. I'll call you if -_

The phone went dead. Why did the battery have to die NOW? Turning back towards Mole, he saw the guy had walked away, back into the destruction that was Terminal City. Shoving the lifeless phone into his pocket, Sketchy ran to catch up.

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Nightfall was well underway when the car came to a halt for the final time. Leaving someone else to carry 452 to the infirmary and take on the contradictory task of keeping the damn girl alive, he hoisted the body of 494 across his shoulders and made his way to a nearby room where he planned on removing that barcode. He needed to do something constructive while he waited for the transgenic bitch to regain conscious.

Rolling the body onto it's stomach, he brushed back the tangle of brown hair at the nape of 494's neck and began to cut into the skin with the scalpel he'd pocketed at the doctor's surgery.

Remembering the time he'd sent the X5 to do this very same thing to his fellow soldiers, it just seemed so poetic that this Manticorian now lay before him, stripped of his identity, dignity and whatever else these freaks valued in their pitiful lives.

Having cut away the barcode, he held it up for inspection and began to laugh at an obscure joke which really, when he thought about it, wasn't at all funny.

Bafflement was as foreign to White as the sensation of pain, but he had to hand it to these lab experiments - they were elusive little butterflies.

* * *

_"You did WHAT?"_

…Was Alec's first coherent sentence after he had been roused into consciousness by Mole's boot and given a quick low-down on the situation.

Alec was still crumpled in a heap where Mole had left him - until he fully comprehended what the transhuman had done. At which point he sprang up, grabbed the reptilian man by the throat and proceeded to choke the living shit out of him. "Do you have _any_ idea what you've done?"

With determination, Mole shook the enraged X5 off and stepped away. His skin was thick and Alec had not achieved much by his efforts.

"Yeah, I know exactly what I've done" Mole had lost his earlier remorse about the whole ordeal and now sat back against a wall, idly caressing his gun. "I've dug up Max's dead-again brother so White can have _his_ corpse for whatever kind of loony cult offering or twisted fetishes he indulges in - instead of _yours_. Thought it was a good idea, personally."

"And can you _imagine _what Max is gonna do to _me _because of it!" Alec was near to screaming. He could certainly imagine what Max would do to him - hence the reason why he had already begun to scream.

"Well Alec what was I s'posed to do? If I gave ya to him alive… well hey, you've got an imagination."

"Yeah well, I'd probably have better survival odds if you'd done just that." Alec shuddered to think he'd be the first person she'd blame. "I mean, we _buried _him already! Oh my God, she's gonna kill me!"

Alec began to pace back and forth, muttering to himself, "I thought I had a chance with her… I thought, at last! She's seen I'm not an irresponsible jerk who doesn't care about anyone except himself. But ohh no! Not anymore! She's gonna think I dug up her brother - ripped him from the ground, just to save myself…"

"Look, would you shut up!"

As far as Mole was now concerned, what's done was done and he was over it. The whole 'will anyone ever forgive me' deal got boring fast. But with Drama Queen Alec carrying on, he began to wonder if he should've just saved himself the effort of digging up a damned body and handed over the real Slim Shady.

Sometimes, Mole could see why Max was obsessively hitting the guy. He had to suppress the urge to do it himself. _Perhaps,_ he mused, _I could just knock him out again…_

For once, good luck favoured Alec as Mole's train of thought was interrupted by one rather perplexed Sketchy. The expression on the human's face was incredulous at the overheard revelation of Alec's feelings for Max, but the twist that his pal had a twin brother - who was also related to Max…?

"Uh, Alec my man, I don't think you had a chance with Max to begin with."

Alec abruptly shut up and stared at his friend, wounded by the remark.

Noticing the look, Sketchy tried to clarify. "Well it's just that, if your twin and her brother are both the same person… I mean, unless incest has suddenly become legal in our state…"

Mole began to chuckle as Alec stood flabbergasted for a moment, thinking upon the complexities of the issue. Although Max and Ben had no genetic connections, he could understand how redneck this would sound to any one not in the know. Feeling this subject could be dealt with later, Alec impatiently gestured to his friend to shut up and turned his attention back to Mole.

"How could you allow White to take Max? Why prevent him from taking me, if you're gonna let him stride on out with her? I don't get it! Did he leave a trail of breadcrumbs for us to follow?"

"Nope. I did plan on following them, but the ordinary here reminded me of all the things my good looks and charm have to offer. That was the point where my great plan kind of… dried up."

Sketchy butted in, glad he had some useful news to offer, "It's okay, Logan's on to that. He managed to trace them after I gave OC the plate number."

"Log - aaaw great! My worst nightmare has been realised!" Alec slumped to the ground and held his hands over his face. The entire human race was doomed.

And now, they had arrived to the part of the conversation for which Mole would prefer to be in another part of the world - perhaps New Zealand - listening to someone else relay the information via the telephone. He understood Alec had a 'thing' for Max and therefore, the extent of her injuries should be conveyed in a tone portraying sympathy and concern. Pity about that.

"Max's dying." Damn. Perhaps that was a bit blunt. Well, he'd given the whole sympathy thing a shot.

Alec raised his head from his hands in disbelief, "What?"

"White put another bullet in her, last I saw she was losing a great lot a blood. It's why I couldn't just pick White and his team off. She needs emergency surgery and we can't just rock up to a hospital and expect a friendly welcome. He was harping on about wantin' his son and how he'd fix her up in exchange for information and - you."

"Why didn't you give him _me_?" Alec's voice was a bare whisper, "I could've been there with her, I could've figured something' out!"

"How, if you're immobilised huh? You know he'd only use you against her, and then he'd kill you both. The only person who can get her out is you - and you can only do that if you're free." Wow, Mole was surprised at himself. He'd truly outdone himself with this little pep talk.

Alec sat motionless. Stupefied. He had heard nothing of what Mole just said. Instead his mind had become frozen within time as he ran over the last few moments he'd spent with Max - those moments before she turned and ran, believing he felt nothing for her.

How could this happen? Alec squeezed his eyes shut to try and block out the guilt that gnawed into him. As he had dragged himself through these feelings earlier today, he now suffered the attack of his personal demons again.

Why would Fate be so pitiless as to give them this chance together - and then tear them apart? Were they truly the creatures of Hell most ordinaries believed them to be? Was this some kind of cruel punishment for continuing to exist in a world where they were so obviously unwelcome?

Love, tenderness, passion… all the things Manticore had denied its children - these were the treasures he'd seen offered within Max's eyes today. For one moment, she had shown him another world. A world where he could wake and feel her arms wrap around him. And take away the nightmares.

A world where they could both belong.

And at last, after everything that had happened to his people, his home and all he clung to in life - when he had all but given up on everything - she had turned to him. She had finally looked _into_ him and recognised the person he was - not the screw up she thought he was.

Only, _foolish idiot!_ He had misinterpreted her.

Springing to his feet, Alec began thinking of what they were going to do. If White wanted his son, he'd keep Max alive, at least for now. That gave them a little bit of time. And with Ben as a decoy, there would be no reason for White to believe anyone was going to come after her. At least, no one he'd bother worrying about.

"I've gotta get to Logan's. If he has their location, that's half our problem solved. Mole, you're gonna have to stay here…"

A realisation hit him with the force of a blow. During all that had happened, they'd forgotten Joshua.

Turning towards the ruins of what had been the building where they'd left the dog-boy, he felt his stomach knot up in sudden pain. There was no way he could have survived that explosion.

Alec took a running step forward, intending to dig through the wreckage - he couldn't just leave without _trying_ to find his friend. But a hand clamped onto his wounded shoulder and pinioned him firmly in place. Crippled by the pain, he reluctantly allowed his body to go limp, until at last Mole was convinced the X5 wasn't going anywhere.

"I know what you're thinkin' Alec - don't think it. He's gone. We have to get Max."

Alec was utterly conscious-stricken. He had left Joshua behind, thinking he'd be safe. HE had made that decision. Everything Max had ever said about him was right - and now because of him, Joshua was dead.

"Look, you made a decision that was right at the time. You are not accountable. The person to blame is White and if we don't find him NOW, he will kill Max." As Mole punctuated his final four words, Alec looked up at him with a look of grim determination.

"You're comin' with us."

And with that, he strode away, leaving Mole and Sketchy to catch up.

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White picked up the body which was _supposed_ to be 494 and hurtled it across the room. This did nothing to satisfy his rage.

What gave them the right to think they could outwit him? He could read barcodes just as surely as he could read ancient Minoan. Each line signified a number and each sequence of numbers held information as to which specific batch the freak in question was made from. He had one thing to thank his father for - teaching him how to read between the lines.

"Do you have means to alter that barcode by a digit?" White held up the flap of skin he had removed from the back of the transgenic's neck and smiled at his budding new idea.

"Sir, if you're asking if we have tattooing facilities on the compound, I don't think -"

"Well sort something out! And take the body and incinerate it. I don't want to see it ever again."

The Familiar nodded, slung the body of 493 across his shoulder and silently left the room.

As he stared at the closing door, White smiled. There was no way anyone was getting 452 away from him this time. He had the entire compound on full security alert - a mouse couldn't take a shit without being caught on camera. But just to be on the safe side, White decided to find out if the transgenic bitch had recovered her voice yet.

.

**TBC...**


	7. Chapter 7

_**AN: **At the time of posting this, I am now 15 weeks pregnant - yay! At last my 12 year old will have the sibling she's been nagging years for. Hopefully I'll manage to get this story posted in completion before the little one's due in Jan 08? (Hey look, there goes a flying pig outside the window!)_

_Apart from omitting a word or two and rephrasing the odd sentence, this chapter has remained otherwise untouched from the original. Considering this fic has been a WIP since I first began writing DA fan fiction in 2002, I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. Nor do I suppose anyone's reading it anymore! But anyway, on with the show…_

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**No Need To Argue - Chapter Seven**

**by Sorrow Reminisce**

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The gap where Sketchy had gained entrance into Terminal City had been discovered. They were going to have to create another exit, but since the discovery of the security breach had doubled the amount of men guarding the perimeter, it wasn't going to easy.

A building had collapsed across the fence guarding the Eastern side of TC, and so there were more guards here then anywhere else. Two guards regularly waved spotlights across the ruins, while several more stood watchful, eagerly hoping to identify something transgenic.

Alec was curious to know what had triggered the National Guard to become more edgy, and he picked his way closer, the saying 'curiosity killed the cat' relaying within his mind as he did so. With his enhanced eyesight and ability to move in almost complete silence, he almost laughed at how ridiculously easy it was to draw close to a couple of sentries lost in conversation.

"Hope we see some action soon, after what they did to Leroy - those mutants don't deserve to live a minute longer!"

The guard facing Alec looked as if he wore a permanent scowl. The light of his torch played upon the sharp angles of his face as the shadows accentuated the lattice of scars and deep crevices which marred his skin, lending him a ghoulish appearance.

The second guard made a guttural sound which Alec took to be a sign of agreement. Turning his head to reveal a shockingly low-sloping forehead, Alec realised this man's ancestors had only recently swung down from the highest branch of the family tree.

Freddy Kruegar continued to speak, "I mean Jeezus, we've got FREAKS runnin' 'round givin' my kids nightmares, claimin' the right to live along side us, and they're not even civilised!"

_Oh now that's a scary thought,_ Alec shook his head in disbelief, _The guy has offspring?_

"Yeah, this place gives me the creeps." At last the second guard had revealed borderline intelligence by demonstrating his delicate grasp on human speech. "How do I know one of them freaks aint just gonna leap out from behind and rip out my throat?"

From where he crouched behind him, Alec suppressed a laugh. If only the guy knew.

"Well, I'm glad someone tipped us off - freaks did a fine job of hidin' Leroy's body." Freddy spat in the direction of Alec before adding, "Lest we know they didn't all escape. Any who try an' claw their way out are gonna get a lovely surprise when they find themselves starin' down my gun."

"I wouldn't mind having one of them freak head's stuffed as a trophy!"

At last deciding he had heard enough barbarity for one day, Alec fell back and returned to Mole and Sketchy to relay what little information he had gleaned. It appeared White had murdered a guard in order to gain access through the fence, and then pinned it on the transgenics - even placed a call so that the body could be recovered.

"No surprises there - as if he hasn't given the world enough reason to hate us already." Mole glared down at the guards before checking over his sniper rifle.

"Hey, we're not going out with our guns blazing," Alec planted himself before the transhuman. "It won't help us any to have you sending smoke signals in the air!"

Mole stepped closer to Alec and glared at him, "What the hell are you trying to say?"

No sooner had the words left the transhuman's mouth, when he remembered the shot he'd fired after crashing into a truck a few months back. Seeing Alec's point, he decided not to press the issue.

Not realising Mole had backed down, Alec continued, "We could take out those guards down there, but the _murder_ of men who're simply doing their job isn't an option. That blood can remain on Familiar hands - and their own."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, stop ya prattlin'." Mole rolled his eyes at Alec's speech, "I get the point already - now you're just beginnin' to sound ust like Max."

Alec gasped. "Hey now, there's no need for that."

And so they proceeded on their search for a way out of Terminal City - once a refuge for the transgenics, now undoubtedly a death trap.

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"I've repaired the damage to her chest as best I can - given the equipment available." The doctor turned away from 452 and walked across the room, picking up another pad with which to soak up the blood that trickled from Max's leg wound. "But she's lost a lot of blood. Really, she needs a transfusion."

White stood beside 452's unconscious body and sneered with disgust. "Well, she's not getting one. When's this piece of filth expected to wake up?"

The doctor shrugged, "Like I said, she's lost too much blood - she might not wake up at all."

"Well that's just fantastic!" White walked away and slammed his fist into the wall, crushing the plaster. Picking up the phone that sat on the desk, he keyed in an extension number.

"Has our guest succeeded in choking on her own tongue yet?" There was silence in the room as White listened to the answer. "Well that's just as well. Bring her to the infirmary. Make sure she doesn't lose any blood along the way."

Hanging up, White turned back to the doctor. "Get 452 ready - we have our donor."

The woman nodded and began to assemble what was needed for the blood transfusion.

White sighed to himself. This was not quite the homecoming he had planned, he had so hoped for something much more… grand.

He began to pace the room, deep in thought, and at last the door opened. A familiar walked in, half dragging a dark haired woman behind him. White grabbed her by the wrist and forced her into a chair beside the bed where 452 lay.

"Get this over and done with!" He barked at the doctor. "And then call me."

Without waiting for the nod, he stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

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It had been well over two hours since White had taken Max away, and it seemed Alec was wrong. Maybe they were going to have to injure some sentries in order to get out of Terminal City after all.

"I can cause a diversion - pretend I'm a transgenic and lead some guards away?" Sketchy looked a little fearful at the idea, but he knew Alec needed to reach Logan's before the guy went off by himself to save the day.

Alec smiled at Sketchy's courage. "No can do Sketch. They'd shoot you just for an excuse to test their guns."

Sketchy gulped. "It's worth a shot though right?"

"Not if the shot hits an internal organ."

At that remark, Sketchy grew silent and returned his thoughts to the magazine article he was planning to write the moment they got out of this jam. "So do you think Max will give me an interview when this is done?"

Mole chuckled, "She'd sooner rip out your throat."

I'll put in a good word for ya buddy." Alec rolled his eyes towards Mole and gave his friend a wink. Sketchy's unfaltering optimism kept a flicker of hope burning within Alec's own mind, and he needed that hope to prevent him from being crushed beneath the weight of his own guilt. If ever there was a time when Alec was congested by self-doubt, now was that time.

By nature, Alec considered himself a happy-go-lucky kinda guy. He gave everything his best shot, smiled at Lady Luck and basked in the confidence of knowing he could succeed at any task he put his mind to.

Except for the Berrisford mission.

Except when he allowed his heart to rule his common sense.

_And what about now?_ Alec's self-doubt found a voice within his head. _Am I making that mistake once again?_

Alec's attempts at remaining positive in the face of adversity were wearing thin. He couldn't help but fear the worst. What if he couldn't get her out? What if this time round…

"Alec! Mole!"

A voice cried out in the darkness behind them - and it was one of the most welcoming sounds the trio could possibly hear in such circumstances. It was the sanguine voice of optimism, a sign that hope need not be lost after all.

A huge smile broke across Alec's face as he turned and found himself being swept up into the crushing embrace of Joshua.

"How the hell did you make it out!" Alec grinned madly at his friend while his eyes raked over him, searching for any sign of injury. "Did they put somethin' extra special in your cocktail? Armadillo perhaps?"

Joshua grinned, "No, just good sense of smell."

"But I don't get it, where the hell were ya when the building blew?" Alec couldn't comprehend how his dog-boy could be here, alive, in one piece.

"In the basement - the tunnel. I followed my nose, crawled back out." Joshua was proud of himself, he'd had to push against a lot of rubble and squeeze through many gaps to find his way to the surface.

"Leads to the sewers. Come, I'll show you!"

Alec groaned in mock dismay, "No! No more sewers Joshua! Whenever I go into the sewers with you, it leads to trouble!"

"No, not this sewer. This one's old. Unused. Off the map. This one will lead us someplace safe."

"Well shit, what the hell are we standin' round yappin' for?" Mole stepped forward and motioned Joshua to turn around. "Lead the way."

Alec's relief to see Joshua alive was immeasurable. He made a mental note to keep Joshua in lifetime supply of ham hocks. Not only had he returned to them unharmed, he'd also found them a way out. For the first time, Alec felt a genuine glimmer of hope.

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Once again, White was standing over 452, the deathly pallor of her skin had been replaced by something close to a healthy glow. Looked like she was going to pull through after all.

"Vital signs are up" The doctor removed the intravenous drip from the arm of the transgenic.

White crouched beside the bed moved closer until his face hovered over 452's. "Wakey wakey sleeping beauty." He whispered into her ear.

The transgenic didn't twitch a muscle.

"Hey!" He raised his voice to a yell fit to raise the dead, "Wake up bitch!"

The doctor flashed White a look of disapproval. "That's not going to help."

White whirled around and grabbed the doctor by her shoulders, shoving her back towards the wall. "When I next walk into this room, I want to see that bitch awake - awake and ready to spill every secret she has ever harboured. Do I make myself clear?"

The doctor nodded her head vigorously.

"Speak! Use your voice! I'm sick of everyone nodding their god-damned heads!"

"Yes, yes sir. I'll make sure she's awake."

White stared at her a moment longer and turned strode from the room. As he reached the end of the corridor, the doctor opened the door and called out in a tone of surprise, "Sir, she's awake!"

"Efficiency - yes! Keep it up and you'll live longer." White stalked back into the room, a twisted smile firmly in place once more. 452 stared groggily at him as he entered before wincing and turning her head towards the wall.

"Oh 452, you should be happy to see me! After all, I saved your life." He stepped between the wall and the bed. "I have so many lovely surprises in store for you, I just don't know where to start."

Max weakly turned her head to look at the woman slumped unconscious in the chair beside her. "Who's she?"

White's eyes penetrated Max's in a way that chilled her. "Funny you should ask."

At that moment his pager began to beep. Keeping his eyes on the transgenic, he took it from his pocket and glanced at the small screen. Someone had set off the close proximity wiring outside of the compound.

"Well it looks like someone else has come to join our little reunion party."

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"As far as sewers go, this one's pretty clean. And I should know - I've wandered through enough of 'em."

Mole turned to give Alec a disgusted look. "Don't you have anything better to do with your time?"

"Well you'd think huh!" Alec's usual buoyancy had returned, for that was exactly what his happiness was - buoyant - it floated upon the surface of his mind, shutting out all the pain and darkness which lingered beneath. Tricks and treats.

Sketchy's Zippo had lasted remarkably well and for that the X5 was grateful. Even cats couldn't see in full darkness, and he needed some particle of light to see by. Starlight would usually suffice, but underground, that wasn't an option.

Thinking of Sketchy, the transgenic spared a glance at the ordinary who trailed behind them. He had remained unusually quiet for a while now. "What's up Sketch? I've hardly heard a peep from you since you got here."

"Well you know, I keep thinking back to that time I offered myself as a guinea pig for that psychiatric hospital."

"Uhh- huh. You did?" Man, no wonder his friend was a little whack. "And when was this?"

"Oh, ages ago. I needed the money you know?"

"Uhh-huh." Alec didn't know. No amount of money would be worth loosing brain cells over, especially when you possessed average human brain cells at that.

"It's just that, ever since you guys have been springing up in the headlines, I've wondered if perhaps none of this is real - maybe it's all just a really intense flashback. I mean, look at Mole!"

At that remark, Mole turned back and growled at the human. "Here we go again - insult the reptile."

"No I mean, you look like something created from someone's twisted imagination." Once again, Sketchy's efforts to clarify himself, were backfiring.

"Idiot. I _was_ created from someone's twisted imagination!"

"Here, through here." Joshua interrupted Sketchy's process of digging himself into a deep hole, by turning to a door in the wall. He began to wrench it from its hinges. The door was old and rusted, and it wasn't long before he pulled it free, exposing another tunnel beyond.

"Great!" Alec grimaced, "More sewers!"

Joshua stuck his head through and inhaled deeply.

"Mmm-mm, you just suck in those odours Big Fella." Alec turned away and scratched his head, slightly embarrassed for his friend who appeared to have gotten a bit too carried away with the whole 'tracking' thing. "Does it make ya feel hungry?"

Joshua slapped one great hand over Alec's shoulder, who sucked in a pained breath. What was it with people needing to claim contact with the injured one?

"Home is this way." And with that, Joshua disappeared into the tunnel, dragging the X5 with him.

Left behind with a scowling creature fresh from his delusional dreams, Sketchy nearly tripped over himself in eagerness to catch up. "Hey! Wait for me!"

Mole watched the human stumble off and shrugged before stepping through into the new sewer, hauling the old door closed behind him. That was one weird kid.

As the transhuman caught up to the small group, he was just in time to hear Alec retelling one of his many adventures through the sewers to a rapt Sketchy.

"…turned out it was a gossamer, isn't that right Big Fella?"

"Yeah, Gossamer."

Sketchy's eyes widened in disbelief, "Oh man, sounds like some of those Manticore scientists had the same dealer as me! What the hell did they use it for?"

"Oh it was created mostly to cough up great big slimy goobers. You know, just for fun. Then they discovered it was also good at retrieving soldiers who'd gone AWOL."

Alec looked around at the section of tunnel they were in and had a sudden, sobering thought. "You know, when life reaches the point where you actually begin to _recognise_ the sewer tunnels, it's time to start reconsidering what line of business you're in."

From behind, Mole chuckled, "Well, you could always hire yourself out as a tour guide for Seattle's prodigious sewage pipeline system once the whole 'Kill the Freaks' hype blows over."

Alec rolled his eyes and laughed. "Yeah, yeah. 'Cause I just can't get enough of this place you know?"

At last, Joshua stopped, much to the combined relief of his companions. Turning to them, he pointed to a manhole above. "We're here."

Sketchy pushed forward, grabbed hold of the rungs and began to climb. "Hey, I can't get this lid off!"

"Shuffle across" Alec swiftly ascended the ladder, ignoring the renewed pain his efforts caused his injured shoulder, and pushed the manhole open.

Sketchy and Mole had no idea where they were once they crawled out into a street lit by dull lamps, but Joshua bolted across the road towards the crumbling veranda of a decrepit house and rapped out a beat on the door.

By the time the others caught up, the front door creaked open to reveal Original Cindy.

"Alec! Sketch said you were taken!" She ran forward and threw herself upon the X5, nearly sending them both backwards and off the top step as she squeezed her arms around his neck.

"Hey, it's okay!" Alec choked out, as he waved Sketchy and Mole inside. "Where's Logan? We need to get Max."

Original Cindy lifted her head back from Alec's shoulder and bit her bottom lip. "He's gone. He went after Max."

Alec swore. This was the last thing they needed.

Original Cindy felt Alec tense and she released him. Stepped back towards the door, she noticed Sketchy and gave him a weak smile before adding, "He scribbled down a location and took off. Guess he figured no one else had made it out."

Alec followed her inside and walked over to the computer equipment Logan had managed to scrounge together since White's men had raided his penthouse. The screen displayed a satellite picture and beside the monitor was a print out of what appeared to a group of buildings. With the location at hand, Alec had just a little more research to do. He wanted to know exactly what he was up against. As Alec sat down at the computer and began to type, he only hoped Logan wouldn't ruin their chances of releasing Max.

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Having reached the security fence, Logan searched beside him for a damp twig and held it close to the wire, waiting for the mild shock which would prove the fence to be electrified. Nothing. There were no signs of guards, no sign of anyone. How could this place be so empty? He took a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and examined it for the hundredth time. No, he was definitely at the right location.

Maybe White had already eliminated anyone he thought to be capable of mounting a rescue mission. The thought gave Logan mixed feelings. For the last year, his whole life had become consumed by the transgenic cause. And in the weeks following Max's forced exile into Terminal City, he'd begun to worry about the transgenics for a different reason. In particular, those who had grown close to Max. In particular, Alec.

To have that all come to an end... To have Max to himself again... Logan felt a pang of guilt that he could think such a thing. But, the thought was there nonetheless.

Logan had noticed the way Max had slowly begun to look towards Alec for support in the way she had once looked towards him. He could see it, even if she couldn't see it for herself. Even so, much as he'd always distrusted the capricious X5, much as he'd always envied him, he didn't wish the guy dead. He just wished that he could have a chance to step back in to Max's life, and show her _he_ was the one looking out for her -just like the old days. Before the charismatic X5 soldier had tangled himself up in their lives, and slowly but surely begun to take his place.

Shaking his head to try and regain his focus to the task at hand, Logan pulled out his wire cutters, cut a hole into the fence and squeezed through, checking the coast was clear before making his way down the hill towards the buildings in his map. Sidling up to a wall, he remained close to the shadows as he crept to the corner of the building. So far, so good.

When he reached the corner, he noticed the largest building across the courtyard had a lit doorway. The door appeared to be partially open. Smiling at this good fortune, Logan dashed across the pavement and disappeared through it. A piercing scream caught his attention. Last room on the right. He fingered his gun and made his way forward, knowing it was now or never.

High on the ceiling above him, a camera swivelled to relay his every move back to the black-suited man who stood before a row of security screens, smug smile firmly in place.

White watched as the human made his way through through the building he had lured him into, the left the surveillance room and headed towards the same building. This was indeed, a gratifying turn of events.

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"Hooray for Max's bike." Alec stood before the Ninja and eyed it with appreciation. "What better way to retrieve the damsel in distress than upon a jet black steed!"

"Wouldn't get any ideas about Max's bike if I were you. You know she'll wring your scrawny neck if you lay a fingerprint on it." Original Cindy wiggled her index finger in front of Alec, a fierce expression on her face.

"Hey, I wouldn't even consider it!" Alec turned away before muttering, "I'll just walk to where she's at. You know, it'll only take a day. Should be there by the time White's finished removing her spleen."

"Go and steal a car. I'm sure that's something you're good at."

"Cindy!" Alec looked wounded at the suggestion, "What makes you think I'd indulge in such criminal activities?"

Just then, Mole and Sketchy appeared at the door, Mole had on a sweatshirt Joshua had left behind before moving to TC, and the hood was pulled up around his face. Sketchy appeared both racked by nerves and exhilarated at the same time as he announced, "We've got the car you asked for."

Alec turned a dazzling smile upon Original Cindy, "See. Why would I steal a car when I can recruit someone else to do it for me?"

Rolling her eyes, OC waved him away, "Go do what you were designed for and kick some evil ass."

Blowing a kiss to his former Jam Pony co-worker, Alec walked out the door to his waiting chariot. Mole sat hunched in the back, his face hidden by the shadow of his hood, Sketchy sank into the front passenger seat, looking a little more dazed and confused then usual.

As Alec was about to step into the driver's seat, Joshua came out from the house and stood beside Cindy. "Be careful Alec!"

Joshua looked so lost and alone, Alec hoped desperately that he wouldn't fail this mission. Not just for Max and himself, but for everyone who'd ever meant anything to him. Trying desperately to hide the despair he felt tightening its fingers around his heart once more, Alec forced himself to smile at the friends he was leaving behind.

"Always."

**TBC...**


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: Boo! Bet you never thought this fic would see an update, huh? Well, I hope there are folks still out there wanting to read it, 'cause I have the final chapters all written up and ready to go! No seriously, I mean it this time. Seriously! Anyway, most of this was put together a long time ago, but I've recently revised and edited out/rewritten a whole load of crap. I think I owe thanks to a certain miss Enigma (aka Melimused if ya wanna go check out her fab fics) for helping me through this - once upon a time, a long long time ago..._

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**No Need To Argue - Chapter Eight**

**by Sorrow Reminisce**

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"What is it with the bad guys always having to build secret facilities in remote locations? It's so predictable."

Alec had splayed a print out from Logan's computer across the steering wheel, and was tracing his fingers across building blueprints, commiting them to memory even as he drove. Every now and then the car would begin to veer across the center line, and without barely a glance, Alec would tug the wheel back into line, nonplussed by his driving style.

Sketchy had strapped on his seatbelt with gusto the moment they had pulled away from the curb.

And then ten minutes after cringing through Alec's haphazard efforts to multi-task, he'd made an attempt to pull a belt from the back seat over him too.

"I mean we didn't _really_ need Logan to find this shit out. It says on page one of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence Techniques of the United States Special Forces - 'when in doubt as to the location of the hostile party, consult the movie reviews in your TV Guide'."

Peeling his hands off his eyes long enough to look at Alec in amazement, Sketchy couldn't help but ask, "Does it really?"

With a grin, Alec reached over to pat his friend on the head, "So, so gullible."

"But really, what would stop you from thinking they're holed up somewhere in sector 12?"

"Well Sketchy my man, it's relatively simple. Just take a look at classic Arnie movies such as Commando and True Lies. Not to forget Manticore itself of course. The bad guys always think they'll be inconspicuous if they're out in the middle of nowhere."

Alec shook his head at such predictability before continuing. "As if any one observing satellite feedback aint gonna question why there's a property heavily guarded by gun-toting mercenaries… on a road that doesn't exist on any map!"

A gruff yet muffled voice rang out from the back seat, "Hey! Would you just quit your yabbering and concentrate on the road?"

Often when one places a blanket over a birdcage, the bird promptly shuts up and falls asleep. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said when a blanket is placed over a lizard.

Disguising a man who looked as if his mum dated one of the characters from V was no easy task, even with the darkness of night to help cloak him. Alec had been all for forcibly stuffing him into the trunk, just to be on the safe side, but instead Mole lay on the back seat, covered over by a travel rug. A sneaky disguise - who would ever guess?

Unwilling to incur the wrath of the transhuman while they had their back to him, Alec and Sketchy continued the journey in silence for a while, each reflecting upon their own thoughts.

At last Sketchy was unable to suppress his innate journalistic nature (re: compulsion to ask pesky questions at inappropriate times) any longer, and so he blurted, "What do you think White's gonna do with Max?"

Alec flinched. That was a question he'd been avoiding from himself for hours now. Grimly, he replied, "He's gonna keep her alive. Because she's the only way he'll ever find his son."

Inside his head, Alec added, '_unless he gets his hands on Logan_', but it wasn't a thought he wanted to pursue. Noble as Logan was, he wasn't trained to withstand torture the way he and Max had been. And if Logan caved, White would have no further cause to keep Max alive.

Sketchy wisely chose not to force the subject and instead fell once again into his own introspection. If anyone had told him he'd one day be sitting in a car with two transgenics, helping to save both Max and the world from a wacky five thousand year old breeding cult… He would have laid off the substance abuse a long time ago.

The day he'd stumbled upon OC leaving Normal's office with Max and Alec's files, he'd felt utterly betrayed. Initially he wasn't sure which hurt the most; finding two of his best friends were transgenics, or finding out by accident. Ultimately, it was the fact that they'd kept it secret from him for so long that really stung. It's great to have friends you can trust, but even better to have friends who can trust you. At that point, Sketchy hadn't felt as if he had much in the way of friends.

But OC had laid it down for him; Max and Alec were the truest friends he'd ever find, no amount of genetic engineering could change that. And as for their lack of trust in him… perhaps they would've let him in on it sooner if it weren't for his 'anti-transgenic vigilante' stance.

Alec sighed deeply, breaking through the quiet at last. Thoughts churned around inside his head and suddenly the silence of the car had become almost deafening. Lowering his voice, he found himself confessing to one particular thought that refused to leave him in peace. "We all knew we'd never make it you know."

Sketchy glanced at his friend, surprised by his words. It was almost as if they were spoken by a man who believed himself to be condemned.

"Max's speech… it was so noble, but even then we knew we couldn't stand up against the world." Alec almost laughed at his following words. "But she spoke with such conviction - and we wanted to believe. She has that way about her you know? …that way of making you believe it has to happen because she'll make it happen."

Sketchy couldn't help but nod in agreement. Yeah, she had that way about her. If feminine charms wouldn't work, she'd simply resort to brute force. More often then not, Max skipped the charms and moved straight to force - it always went better with her outfit.

From the back seat came the unmistakable sound of a snort. "Oh please, we all followed her cause she's hot! You think we'd be doing all this if she looked like me?"

Alec and Sketchy both shuddered at the thought. Rather than answer that one, Sketchy aimed for a subject change. "What's gonna happen now Alec? To the rest of the transgenics - the ones who made it out?"

"I don't know. We'll go to ground same as we did after Manticore went down. There's no other choice. I just hope I won't have to do it alone."

"Ahh, you won't be alone Alec - you'll always have me!" Mole chuckled dryly._ Cue the violins_. The way this conversation was heading, he expected one of these girls to at any given moment; burst into tears, start a DMC on sad childhood memories, or both. If either of these happened, he'd jump out of the car. Take his chances with the vigilantes and sector police.

Sketchy was taken back by the raw pain in Alec's voice. He was used to seeing his friend as the ever-confident devil-may-care man he'd always known him to be. Not like this. Not lost and eaten by fear and doubt. He knew Alec was trying to make a show of hiding it, but for once, the mask kept sliding off his face.

"Alec buddy, I don't really know how to tackle these complex emotional issues… but the way I see it is this; you survived over twenty years in Manticore, and still you can start every day with a joke up your sleeve. No matter what, you'll always find a way to keep on going. Whether you want to or not."

Mole cut in with his own set of positive affirmations. "Oh my god - are you ladies finished yet? Geeze, what happened to you Alec? Are you sure you're not 493 and I gave White the wrong body?"

"Well Mole," Alec glared at him in the rear vision mirror, and deadpanned, "If I were Ben I'd be ripping your teeth out right now."

The transhuman slid back in his seat. "Noted."

"Ah crap," The mood changed yet again as Alec slowed the car and turned down a side street, then into an alley and drew to a stop.

The last exit out of Seattle had snuck up on them and even at this small hour of the night, sthere were a number of guards at the checkpoint to prevent surviving transgenics from escape. This was where the fun truly began. Strolling on through with the flash of a sector pass, a wave and a nod was no longer an option.

"With a thermal imager, they'll know I'm a transgenic before we get within 20 yards. And as for Mole…" Alec thought about their options, or lack of.

Sketchy leant forward, all eagerness and adrenalin. "We're just gonna have to bust through the checkpoint and hope we can outrun them. There's too many to take out... Right?"

Alec looked at Sketchy levelly. "You're not coming for this neck of the journey buddy."

"Hang on!" Sketchy shook his head in protest. He felt at least partially responsible for the public's view on transgenics, and fervently needed to remedy that. "You can't just turn me out here man, I've gotta help! There's a way I can be useful!"

Noticing Alec was actually taking him seriously and patiently waiting for this brilliant plan of action, he mumbled, "Just give me a chance to figure out what that way is…"

Mole sat up from the back seat and pulled off his hood, looking frighteningly excited by their dilemma, "I gotta plan. Why don't we let the kid cause a distraction so we don't have to worry about cops pursuing this rusty hunk of shit?" It was a simple answer, therefore he couldn't understand why they were both looking at him as if he'd suddenly morphed another head.

"Hey yeah…" Sketchy slowly warmed to the idea. (That is if humans usually wore an expression of forced bladder control when faced by a brilliant idea, Mole told himself encouragingly.)

"Oh no! No, no, no!" Alec turned in his seat until he was fully facing the transhuman. "Sketchy's helped us enough already - just coming into TC was a risk for the guy, so whatever plan you have inside that ugly head of yours… lose it!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Alec. Sticks and stones…" Mole grinned, he wasn't insulted by Alec's words. He knew he'd never be a centrefold. "Okay then, so the kids got a better plan. Well, spit it out then huh?"

Alec sighed and held up his hands in defeat. Turning to Sketchy he asked, "So what's your plan?"

"Uh, well…"

"Here, let me!" grinning madly, Mole leant forward and cranked the heater to it's highest setting before stepping out of the car.

"Come on Alec, get out. Kid - you stay there. We need to raise your body temperature - you're our decoy."

"What?" Alec remained seated. He was beginning to realise the transhuman had a little obsession with using people as bait. It was kinda psychotic.

Mole opened the driver's door, leaned in, grabbed Alec by one arm and wrenched him over his shoulder. Backing out with the X5 hung upside down over him, he laughed as he dumped him to the ground.

"Come on, give the kid a chance. If he wants to go out in a blaze of glory then let him! You never know, he might just make it."

xxxxxx

It was now time for phase two of Mole's cunning plan. The transhuman was sitting low behind the wheel, the car was back on the main road, and they'd pulled in behind a parked car, 30 yards from the checkpoint.

"Thanks for the ride guys, I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it." Sketchy jumped out and started towards the guards, Alec grabbed his arm through the open window.

"See you at Joshua's right?" Alec's look was dead serious, and Sketchy could see it was less of a question, more of a command. In that moment he wondered how he could have ever believed Alec to be nothing more than a carefree good-time guy. The man was soldier to the core.

Shaking the realisation aside, Sketchy forced his smile wider, "Yeah, sure thing. Got nothing better to do." And with that, he began to run.

The car slowly rolled down the road and the transgenics watched as the guards took the bait and yelled at him to stop. Seeing he had no intention of doing such a thing, the majority then took off in pursuit.

"You ready?" Mole looked at Alec intently, and the X5 recalled similar words being asked from another transgenic, on the day his whole existence took a turn towards the worst.

"I'm always ready."

Opening the door, he jumped out and blurred towards the guard who stood before the checkpoint booth. Mole watched as he kicked the guns out of the hands of two men before they even realised he was there, then brought them both down with a roundhouse kick. Nicely done.

Two more raised their guns towards him but he dropped to the ground and swept their legs out from beneath them. One remained on the ground - heavily winded, but as the other made to stand, Alec picked him up by the front of his shirt and propelled him into the final guard. They both collapsed in a heap and he quickly gathered up their guns. Sparing a glance towards Mole, he ran into the booth and a moment later, the barrier began to rise.

Mole gave the car a rev (to lend a feeling of atmosphere to the scene) and slammed his foot on the accelerator, propelling the old sedan towards the check point. An unfortunate guard had risen to his feet and placed himself in the way of the car. Smiling manically, Mole pushed the car faster, but as he was about to experience the gratification of seeing how far a human could bounce off a bonnet, Alec plucked up the man and threw him back to the curb.

Squealing to a halt in front of the transgenic, Mole glared at him as he opened the drivers door. "Spoil my fun." But then he noticed the guns Alec had swept up from the ground, and added with a grin, "But I'll forgive you."

As the car pulled away from the border, the guard at the curb heard a loud groan from within the vehicle as a voice cheerfully cried, "Now, I bags the first round of _I Spy_!"

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Someone had pulled together an extraction team. Max closed her eyes in groggy relief. Relief she'd be out of here soon, and relief there were still enough surviving transgenics to make the effort. As her mind pulled further from the drugs that had kept her sedated, a new awareness sank in, as she thought of the slow cold smile that had spread over White's face when he mentioned the perimeter breach. Like he'd been expecting it with open arms.

The thing was, it couldn't a transgenic. They were trained better than to trigger an alarm.

Which meant it could only be an Ordinary. It could only be Logan.

Max's stomach twisted tightly. Logan wasn't the hands-on Secret Mission Man. He was the Intel Guy. So if Logan himself had come to do the job, what had happened to Alec? Had he words repelled him so much that he'd truly gone on the lam on his own? Had one of White's men taken him out?

Max froze when she realised all of her concern to this point had been for Alec. But what about Logan? If he'd tripped the wire, he was as good as much as in White's hands. Which meant, he was good as much as...

No, she wasn't prepared to finish that thought. However much her feelings may have changed - however much she may had begun severing the emotional ties that'd held her to Logan for so long, she'd never be prepared to finish that thought.

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Logan strained against the cuffs which bound him to the table. He realised he'd been caught in a trap when the cries he'd heard led not to Max, but to a digital voice recorder, in the very room he was now held captive. As soon as he'd made that realisation, White - or one of his goons - had stepped up behind him and knocked him out cold.

He should've waited for help, he knew that now. But with no word on whether Alec was alive or dead, and no idea if any of the others had escaped, he couldn't see any option except to rescue Max himself.

Even if he _had_ been able to locate another transgenic, he wasn't sure he'd find one willing to help. Max had never managed to win the transgenic nation over to her side as well as she would have liked, and as much as he was loathe to admit it, Alec was probably the only one willing and capable of getting her out of this mess. What was her hope now?

At the sound of the door handle turning, Logan mustered up the determination to face the suited figure who walked into the room. He understood what was going to happen to him; understood the information Ames White needed, and how he planned to get it. Most of all, he understood that if he gave it up to him, Max's life would be forfeit.

With the room silent except for the click of White's shiny black shoes as he walked across the room, Logan watched as he picked up a scapel and ran his thumb along the blade, his face expressionless at the blood which began to trickle down his wrist. The familiar's lips curled into a sneer as he stepped forward, slowly waving the scalpel in front of him.

"I'm sure you know what my first question's going to be, Cale. The next one is, what part shall I start slicing off first?"

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Max looked across over at the woman who had not yet recovered from whatever had been pumped into her system. She tried to judge her age but it was difficult to tell. Perhaps she was in her early-thirties? No, she looked like the type to carry her age well. Forty perhaps.

Whatever.

She didn't know why she was here, but figured White would reveal that one soon enough. No doubt it was some kind of tactic he planned to use against her, so she'd spill the beans about his kid. Try and tell her she was her mother or something. Yeah. Like she was that gullible.

She felt pain sear through her chest and raised her head to look down at the latest bullet wound White had given her. With a flush of humiliation, Max stared down at her exposed body. Her jeans had been removed so that one of White's more thoughtful minion's could attend to her leg, and the strategic placement of the bandage which bound her chest left little for the imagination.

Max shuddered to think she had been in such a vulnerable state around White. That guy oozed creep. Ignoring the fact that she'd recently hovered on the outskirts of death, Max tried harder to tug free of her restraints. No give.

Beside her, the woman groaned softly and rolled her head. Max's anger grew. No doubt she'd have to make small talk. Perhaps the lady could start by telling her what the hell she hoped to achieve by this ruse.

"Hey! Wake up and untie me huh?" Feeling surprisingly spry given her condition, Max began to map out her plan of action. This woman beside her would wake up and untie her, she would kill White, and then she would leave. Simple. "I said wake up damn it!"

The woman's eyes slowly fluttered and Max sighed with impatience. "Stop being so dramatic already!"

Oh it was no use. White had obviously told her to milk it. Max had no choice but to lie here and feel pissed off and degraded. Just as he obviously intended.

Just as Max decided she'd try raw anger as a means to snap her restraints, the door opened and a woman walked in.

Max composed herself long enough to plaster on a sunny smile, "Hey! Can you help me?"

The woman stopped in surprise, but shook her head. Instead moving to pick up a glass vial and syringe.

"Come on! Give me a hand! I'm near naked and tied to a bed - and there's two chicks in the room. Do you have any idea what my boyfriend would suggest if he walked in right now? Please, at least give me some dignity!"

With relief Max watched as the woman Max presumed to be a doctor, finally put down the syringe and picked up a blanket to place over her. She then moved across to the woman in the chair and pried an eyelid back.

"Has she stirred yet?"

Max quickly shook her head. "Nope. Not a murmur."

"Hmm. Should have by now."

"Oh well, so she's fond of her sleep." Max shrugged, or at least tried to beneath her confinements. "So… wanna tell me who she is?"

The doctor raised an eyebrow, "I think you've worked that one out already, 452. White's been keeping her here as a special surprise for you. He brought her here from the same place where his brother is kept."

"Ah, the old mental institute. Why? Oh I get it, because no one in their right mind would wanna get busy with him, he's gotta resort to the catatonic types huh?"

The woman simply stared blankly at her - obviously that one went right over her head.

"So you're telling me out of the goodness of his heart, that son of a bitch tracked down my mother? Come on, I know CJ's padded cell was owned and operated by his cult wacko's. You expect me to believe she was one of them too?" Desperation had begun to creep into Max's voice. She could care less who the unconscious woman was - she was simply trying to get the doc to warm up a bit. Bit of light conversation and all.

"Why not? Sanderman was a familiar as you must know." The expression on the doctor's face was almost matronly, and entirely misleading. " Do you think just because he broke away from the fold, he wouldn't want to increase the strength of his little army by using _our_ DNA?"

"Fuck you!"

Max turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut, but she could do nothing to block out the sound of the doctor's taunting voice. She refused to believe a word of it. Sanderman was good, he broke away from the Conclave because he knew they were wrong. He had created the transgenics to protect humankind. There could be no other possibility.

"My mother was a surrogate, she was paid to carry me within her, same goes for the rest of us - there's nothing special about that!"

The doctor smiled and sat down beside Max, dropping her voice to speak in a conspiring whisper, "And why do you think you're so different from the other transgenics? Why do you think you're so 'special'? You are a familiar. Just. Like. Us."

"I'm nothing like you!"

Max felt as if she were going explode, fury and hatred seethed within her and she longed to lash out at the woman, to beat her beyond recognition…

"Did you sense the phalanx when they were near? Is that why you managed to hide from them?"

The doctor watched with contempt as the fire within Max's eyes abruptly burnt out as she shrank within herself at the question. She paused, waiting for an answer. But Max lay in silence, refusing to meet her eyes.

The doctor chose at that point to say nothing further, there was no need. She had planted the seed of doubt within the girl's head. Now she just had to wait for it to grow.

She picked up the syringe of clear liquid and approached Max once more. Max didn't try to fight against the injection. Instead, she welcomed it.

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It was nearly dawn when the car ran out of gas and rolled to a halt ten miles from where they'd planned to ditch it anyway. Alec and Mole had been travelling by foot for an hour now, keeping off the road and staying as much as possible within the shadows of trees.

Of course, the risk of being caught did nothing to prevent Alec from discussing with his friend, the many fine things he had learnt since being in the outside world. Whether it was his way of smothering anxiety, or keeping up moral, or just a driving need to fill in long silences, he couldn't help but talk during times when it was necessary to remain as quiet as possible. Such as now.

"Now one aspect of TV which makes no sense to me is the Rambo-style 'elimination of the guards' technique which Hollywood was so fond of back in the day. Don't you agree?"

"Can't say I share your passion for TV Alec." In fact, Mole couldn't so much as share the experience of having watched TV - period. "But that's humankind for ya - nothing they do makes any sense. Going in with guns blazing. Why would anyone wanna alert the enemy?"

"Exactly! It's way more gratifying to sneak on in, do your job, then sneak out. And then watch from a safe distance as they realise their top notch security has been breached and we're walkin' round with their underwear on our heads!"

"Yeah - makes them look like fools don't it?"

"Damn straight it does." Alec chuckled as his eyes scanned the area, ever watchful for signs of the enemy. Perhaps to anyone else, it may have seemed as if he were paying no attention to his surroundings, but amid his chatter he'd noticed many things even an observant ordinary would never clue to.

Like how the occasional power pole would be rigged with a surveillance camera. And how the houses were just a bit off. They were few and far between, set fairly close to the road and looked less like homes - more like mini observation towers.

And the most obvious sign of all that they had crossed the enemy line, was the odd car which traveled the lonely road. They could've been innocent people going about their daily business - their cars were nondescript and hardly threatening. Except that they'd drive past at regular intervals from opposite directions. Like sentries on patrol.

Finally they reached the crest of a hill which overlooked a group of plain looking buildings set out like a commercial farm - except for the sixteen foot high razor wire fence that surrounded it, and the men they could see patrolling the perimeter.

"Covert huh?" Mole scoffed. "Not even a human could mistake _that_ for a farm. Unless they're tryin'a pass themselves off as a Moonshine brewery."

"Well, I hope you bought your fake ID." Alec rubbed his hands together in anticipation and grinned at his friend's quizzical look. "Cause those pretty looks of yours won't help you sweet talk the bouncers!"

Mole growled at his comrade and shot him a sidelong look. "Tell me, you've got a plan right?"

"Of course, my scaley-skinned pal. I've got a plan for everything." Alec slapped a hand across his comrade's back and grinned like a Cheshire Cat. "And I'm sure you of all people, will appreciate this one. I took a page straight from your book."

* * *

** TBC... For those who've been waiting for a resolution to this story, I promise you - I swear on Alec's blue towel - the conclusion will be uploaded very soon. I just have to decide which ending to go with. See, I started on a major-character-killing-spree back in the days when these final chapters were drafted up, and I wrote two endings. The happy one. The sad one. Guess you'll have to wait and see which one I deliver... ;)**

**Either way, the fic takes a darker twist in the next chapter, so I'll be updating the rating to reflect this. Make sure you have your FFNET ratings filter set to 'all' so you don't miss it!**


	9. Chapter 9

_AN: I guess I should warn you, this chapter gets a tad dark and brutal when White tries a new tactic to torment Max... I've tried to counter-balance that with some light-hearted camaraderie with Alec and Mole. Hope you'll stick through it - this fic is nearly at an end!_

_Also, please note the last segment of the previous chapter has been revised, hopefully it's not as sucky as it was before. Not that there's any sense going back to read it. Just putting it out there..._

* * *

**No Need To Argue - Chapter Nine**

**by Sorrow Reminisce**

**ll l lll ll l lll**

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The transhuman studied the compound below, deliberating on whether to follow Alec's plan or come up with one of his own. One that involved running the hell outta here. Clearly, the guy was crazy. And he probably wanted him dead. Mole still wasn't entirely convinced psychopathy wasn't a genetic condition.

The sixteen foot high fence laced with razor wire and infrared sensors didn't seem too difficult. Though the hidden tripwires that were rigged to silent alarms probably would be. Especially if any of those tripwires had claymores attached - which wouldn't surprise him. Guards patrolled the perimeter fence every three minutes. Their attire was casual, farmer style even, but their demeanor screamed _military trained_. Basically, gaining access to the buildings beyond the fence without being detected was about as probable as flying nuns.

"Is it just me.." Alec began to whisper as he crawled closer to his comrade, "Or is there something _familiar_ about these guys?"

Mole gave a small nod. "Read my mind."

"Well, now that we've established this isn't just some off-the-records military thing, it should be fun." The gleeful anticipation in Alec's voice sounded sincere, and Mole wondered if his friend had actually missed these kinds of missions since Manticore's demise. Not that he'd blame him if he did - away missions had always been a highlight to being a Manticore-bred supersoldier.

"Well, they've got every kinda set-up imaginable aimed at keepin' us out -so, yeah this is gonna be a barrel of fun." Mole spat out the blade of grass he'd been chewing on since going cold turkey on the wheat, and crawled a foot closer to the party. This was like being on the outside of a POW camp and trying to get in - completely insane.

"Nothing's too big or small for us Mole. This is just a... a walk in the park."

"In a minefield Alec. A walk in a_ minefield."_

_"_Hey! Where's that_ I'll grind your bones to make my bread_ optimism buddy?" Alec turned wide laughing eyes onto his friend before dropping his tone with a remark guaranteed to get a bite out of the hot headed lizard. "You're not going soft on me are you?"

Mole turned to him with a snarl and flicked an offensive hand signal. Laughing away the tension of their upcoming showdown, Alec turned back to the cluster of buildings and fell silent as he once more took to waiting.

Of course, the silence didn't last for long, and then Alec started on a new tangent. Mole shook his head in a mixture of amusement and exasperation at the X5's latest topic. Bitter mutterings regarding Logan's self-appointed right to play at being Superman simply because of his vague resemblances to Clark? Whatever _that_ was about.

Eventually, Mole's patience wore thin. They'd been waiting far too long for outer-perimeter sentries to stroll on by, and at this rate it'd be full daylight before they got anywhere. Sometimes, you just had to go with the Hollywood version.

"Aw, screw this shit." Unscrewing the silencer from his sniper rifle, Mole ignored Alec's look of alarm as he began to edge away from the X5.

Swearing under his breath, Alec grabbed Mole's foot and hissed. "Hey, whatcha doin!"

Wrenching his limb away, Mole muttered complaints to himself of encumbersome X5's before swinging his head back to his companion, a look of impatience on his inhuman face.

"Well come on Princess, you gonna prattle on about Robo-legs forever, or are we gonna gatecrash this party?"

Without waiting for a reply, Mole sprang to his feet, and ran.

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The high pitched wail of the first missile moments before it struck the target was what wrenched Max from her dreamless sleep and into a living nightmare. With her ears ringing from the thunderous sounds of buildings exploding, and the screams of the dying that followed, Max ran from her decrepit apartment and into the tortured streets of Terminal City. Around her, buildings were shattering in all directions, rising up into the sky, and then raining back down again, while transgenics ran in a futile attempt to seek cover. Some merely stood in shocked horror, their grotesque silhouettes showing them to be Nomolies - terrified that the past had caught up with them, and not knowing what to do to save themselves from it.

Max yelled at them to take cover, but there was no way to escape. No one knew where the next missile would strike. And there were so many - so many to save. The fiery destruction of Terminal City made the demise of Manticore seem a basic fire drill. The task of saving these peoples lives had become an impossible one.

As Max ran to those who stood dumbstruck, a part of her wondered if this truly _was_ their fate, coming to claim them at last. If so, this was her fate too. As true helplessness overwhelmed her in the face of such a realisation, she wanted to sink to her knees in the midst of it all and scream. And so as she witnessed the horror around her, and heard the screams of her friends and comrades as they begged for the pain to end, that was exactly what she did.

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Eyes snapping open, Max stared up at the fluorescent lights above her, heart rattling in chest as if trying to beat it's way right out from its cage of bone. Straining against the straps that bound her to the steel hospital cot, she fought to breath - fought the images of death as she tried to bring her mind back into the present. Panic threatened to overwhelm her as tragic memories of the past and doomed visions of the future plagued her mind and she drew in large gasping breaths to try and calm herself.

"Screams like _that _could wake the dead 452."

The voice made Max's skin crawl and did nothing to reduce her panic attack. In the moments that passed since having woken from her nightmare, she hadn't noticed White cross the room to stand beside her. Now he perched on the edge of the thin mattress, a surgical scalpel dangling casually from his fingers as he looked down at her with a dark smile. "Now, shall we test that theory?"

Max stared transfixed at the blade as it swayed back and forth before her, despair threading its way through her stomach as she noted the sleek rivulet of blood that had already congealed on its edge. Blood that was not her own. Finally tearing her gaze away, she raised her eyes to meets White's own. "Need I tell you once again to bite me?"

The familiar's smile turned into a cruel sneer as his eyes hardened. "Don't tempt me 452."

Lowering the scalpel towards her, both pairs of eyes watched its descent as he dipped the blade towards Max's stomach and ran it ever-so-lightly across her skin, leaving a fresh trail of beading blood to mingle with the old. White waited for the pain to sink in and mar his captor's pretty features. Smiling with satisfaction as she clenched her eyes tight, White leant over his prize, his face inches from her own as his lips glided over her ear.

"Now 452, are you going to tell me where my son is?" Smiling as she muttered another curse, he continued,"Or am I going to have to feed you slices of your own quivering flesh?"

"How about you do that?" Max wrenched her head away as she felt the vibration of his laughter brush against her skin. "Because it'll only serve to remind me just what a whack job you are. And that's exactly why your son is better off as far away from you as possible. Now how 'bout you listen to me. Whoever you've captured - you're gonna them let go. Alive. Then maybe I'll talk."

"Nice wish list 452. How about I see what I can work out for you huh? Because you know I just wanna find a peaceful ending for all of us."

"Yeah whatever." Mumbling under her breath, Max turned her head away and began to inspect a wall, fighting the defeat that rested so heavily within her, she half wondered if she'd be be able to rise from this bed even if she weren't bound to it.

"I already know that Ray is with his aunt, and that Logan Cale arranged for them to cross the border into Canada."

She snapped her head back towards him, her eyes widened in shock. The sudden realisation that it was Logan's blood on the blade and the fear of what White had done to draw that information out of him, caused a small cry to escape her lips.

White grinned. He wanted her to believe he had tortured Logan to great lengths for this information. Because he had. But that wasn't how he'd found out the truth.

"Don't worry, Eyes Only refused to give that pearl up, no matter how I tried to... Convince him." He softened his voice to a whisper as he leant over her once more. "No 452, those frightened eyes of yours just gave it away."

Laughing out loud, the familiar then continued in a conversational tone. "You know I've been toying with you all along, right? I mean, it wasn't difficult for me to find out that Wendy's sister had packed up and left within a day of Ray's abduction. It wasn't hard to guess that you and your chumps would have smuggled them out of the country. And it certainly didn't take much brainstorming to come to the conclusion that Canada is filled with more of Eyes Only's refugees than it is Canadians."

Max didn't trust her voice enough to try and speak. White's mention of Eyes Only chilled her to the bone. Just how much had he tortured Logan to find out his alter-ego?

"Well what do you say to that one 452? Come on - I'm _itching _with curiousity!"

"Yeah well perhaps you should try _lice_ treatment!" Max's words were laced with frustration. Hopelessly sure now that none of them were going to be getting out of here anyway, she tried to play on White's conscience. If he even had one.

"If you really loved your son, you'd let him stay with his aunt." She looked to him and noted how the angry twitch in his cheek. What was the point in holding back now? "Can't you see that dragging him back into your life is just gonna turn an innocent kid into a fucked up psychopath like yourself?"

Grabbing Max's head and twisting it back towards him, White fought the urge to wrap his fingers around the X5's throat and simply wring the life right out of her - taking that smug little smile of hers with it. But of course, that wouldn't get him his son back. Rage boiled deep within him at the frustration of knowing his efforts were so far only leading him in useless circles.

"You know what 452? You have this knack of making me so damned angry. And I'm not a patient man."His fingers dug into her skin as he continued."I think it's time we try a new method of information extraction."

"Information extraction huh?" Max gave an ironic laugh as she rolled her eyes at him. "Is that the politically correct term for _torture_ now Ames?"

"Well you know me 452. I try to be diplomatic." He smiled at the memory of how good it felt to riddle this piece of transgenic scum with holes. A scowl then chased the smile away as his mind played an image of how it had been necessary to personally keep the damn bitch alive after his hot headed actions."And to prove that I'm generally a fair person, I'm going to give you two pleasant little options to choose from."

Loosening his hold on her, he ran a finger softly along Max's cheek, brushing back her hair in an almost affectionate manner, and grinning with sincere pleasure as his touch made her irises darken with black hatred. Her obvious discomfort only served to please him further.

In the back of his mind, White briefly played over the fun he could have with the X5 for the simple sake of seeing her humiliated and crumbling beneath the weight of self-hatred. But there was no time, the Conclave would soon find out he had 452, and they would insist he bring her to them. His twisted sense of logic told him to act quickly, least this opportunity be lost.

Standing at last, White threw down his final cards. "If you tell me _exactly _where Ray is, then I might just let the geriatric who I presume to be your _lover boy, _Mr Eyes Only - live."

"Or alternatively, you can save your mother. I hear the doctor has already had a chat with you about _that _little chapter of your natal life. We had to remove her from your presence unfortunately. Seeing you tied down like that... well it made her freak out a little. Poor woman is so unbalanced as it is." White sighed in mock sympathy before continuing. "The asylum she's spent half of her life in isn't the most _humane_ of places unfortunately."

"Oh yeah, I remember the woman. The _familiar._ " Max rolled her eyes as she scoffed. "And _that's _a far-fetched story if ever I heard one."

White ignored her retort and turned towards the door. Exiting for a few moments to speak to someone who waited outside, he then turned back towards his prisoner. "How about I give you a moment to acquaint yourself with her before you make your decision?"

"Spare me your shit White. How about you just untie me and we fight this bitch out?" Max pulled against her restraints once more, although she knew the futility in her efforts. If White were to take her up on the decision she'd be as helpless now as she was the day he caught up with her in Harbor Lights Hospital.

Sitting back on the edge of the bed once more, White stared down at the transgenic, the smile that haunted his lips causing Max to shudder with repulsion. Studying her features, he lowered his voice as he remarked. "I have to admit, my father certainly reached his goal for physical perfection when he manufactured you."

"You're out of practice with the pick up lines White. How about you try it on someone your own age?" Max tried not to shrink beneath his gaze, refusing to show weakness although her stomach churned at the suggestion in his tone of voice. Reminding herself that he detested her far too much to bring her growing fear to fruition, she added. "But I suppose rendering woman helpless is the only way assholes like you can score. I bet you tied down and drugged your wife too huh?"

As White's face turned up into an ugly sneer, Max instantly regretted her words. She expected him to lash out at her and beat her into a bleeding pulp. For a moment it seemed that he would. But as he drew back his arm, a new look came into his cold glittering eyes. One much more sadistic.

"How about I _show_ you just how I treated my wife 452?"

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The lizard-like man slipped through the darkness and towards the perimeter fence. On the hill above him, his partner watched and waited. Their bodies and minds fully prepared for what was to come, as if it were the single most defining moment of their entire being. Considering what was at stake, it probably was.

Even as he was only a few meters from the fence, the familiars who stood watch had still failed to notice the tranhuman. So much for creating a diversion. Sometimes green skinned reptilian men could be too damned inconspicuous for their own good. Mole chose this moment to let off a burst of gunfire towards the direction of the buildings. So _now _they finally clued on. About bloody time.

To his left he caught flashes of light in his peripheral vision. The sound of automatic gunfire sliced through the still air as the bullets themselves did - propelled towards their target. Blurring past the bullets, Mole skidded to a halt as he reached the fence and cursed himself for having done so already.

"Come on Mole, veer away from the fence damnit." Realising what Mole was up to, Alec crept closer, waiting for his moment to step into this little drama. Silently he swore beneath his breath, wondering why the hell his friend had wound up so close to the wire mesh. The combination of down hill propulsion, wet grass, and a deep-seated desire to take flight like a superhero had lead to the lizard man reaching the fence faster than anticipated, but if Alec left the camouflage of the trees right now, their plan would instantly fail.

Groaning as the familiars closed in on his companion, Alec began to creep out from his seclusion, then stopped and watched with numb fixation as the familiars brought his friend down. First firing at him from a distance, then approaching once he fell to the ground. As Mole's limp body was carried away, Alec heard the snapping of twigs from behind draw closer as a couple of familiars approached. Slinking further back into the darkness of the copse of trees, he waited for them to draw closer. Now it was his turn.

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Max tugged her head away as White wrapped his fingers tightly, cruelly, through her locks, inhibiting her movement. His smile was cruel and inhuman as he leant towards her. With Max now fully restrained, White began to kiss her with near brutal force, his mouth travelling down to her jawline and along her neck, nipping roughly with his teeth as he went before returning to her mouth once more.

His mind ignored both the petty threats she choked out between his kisses, and the silent protests of his own mind. The thrill of degrading 452 and wiping that smug grin off her face once and for all, was too much temptation to turn down. His sadistic desire to see 452 violated and broken overruled his blinding hatred for her species.

This was his revenge on the embarrassment she caused him to suffer time and time again. Tightening his grip on her hair, White ran his free hand along her body. The lust of rage and hatred infused his every touch and he smiled as he felt her shudder with revulsion beneath his palm.

Forcing tears back for the hopeless futility of her situation, Max tried to disconnect her mind from her body as she felt White's lips trail over her skin, his hands kneading at her flesh. She stopped snarling at him to stop between insults at his family hereditary - it only made him enjoy this more. Instead she closed her eyes and prayed silently that Alec would find her before it was too late. Before White took this insanity any further.

His taste was in her mouth, choking her, his scent filling her nostrils. As his hand glided over her skin, she felt it crawl beneath his touch. Never before had she felt so helpless and god damned weak.

Fighting the silent screams inside her mind that threatened to surface, she knew this was exactly how he want her to feel. And she refused to give him that satisfaction. Wishing desperately that she hadn't provoked him as he forced his mouth back over her own, Max finally realised her own foolish arrogance. She had made a grave mistake in mis-judging Ames White.

And now she knew just what sort of a dangerous creature he really was.

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The black clad familiars turned back towards the facility they guarded, the transgenic limply slung over the shoulder of one as if he were a sack of meat. As they passed through the entrance and strode towards what appeared to be a cargo bay, the gates automatically began to close behind them.

Two veered off towards the main building, leaving the familiar who carried the transgenic to his own devices. He dumped the body onto the ground beside a large wooden crate and began to remove the lid. Briefly he wondered why they didn't just burn the filthy thing, but he stifled the thought. Ames White had his reasons for ordering that all transgenics be taken in alive and sent to him. He knew better than to question his instructions. Familiars were trained to have an extremely high tolerance to pain, but if the right buttons were pushed, they could feel pain immeasurable. And from what he had heard, Ames White knew how to push those buttons.

With his thoughts so pre-occupied, the familiar was completely taken off guard when the 'dead' transgenic suddenly sprang to life. Turning towards the sound of movement behind him, he found himself suddenly being flung backwards. In an instant, the transgenic was before him once more, picking him up and bringing him back down again across a raised knee. A glimpse of red rimmed eyes flashed into his mind moments before his spine was broken and his neck then efficiently snapped. Mole wasn't in the mood for pissing around.

Dropping the lifeless familiar, the lizard-like man began to pull bullets from his body - reptilian skin had its merits, offering a natural armor. Sensing someone behind him and whirled around, finding himself encountering another cult-bred wacko. Swearing a loud complaint, he launched himself at the leanly built guard, intending to finish this one off in less time than the last. He was feeling a world of hurt right now and needed to bash his pain out by hitting something. Hard.

"He-ey!" The familiar apparently didn't expect to be attacked and his attempt to sidestep the approaching bundle of scaled fury was not made quick enough. With a whoosh of expelled air as the transhuman barreled into him, he fell backwards, too winded to call out. To breathless to try and communicate the fact that he wasn't in fact a familiar, but a transgenic in familiar clothing. X5-494 wearing a riot helmet and bullet proof gear.

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Max's whole body recoiled with disgust as she tried to wrench her head out of White's cruel grasp. Despite her earlier efforts to tell herself not to react, she couldn't help herself. Her mind and body both screamed for her to do something, to take defense. As White's weight shifted and he moved himself on top of her, Max knew she would truly rather die than have this go on any longer. Pinned fully beneath him now, there was only one thing she could do.

Opening her mouth to allow his tongue access, she bit down upon it with all of her might. Suddenly White's body began writhing in a different manner as he struggled to pull free. Clamping down even harder, Max ignored his thrashings. She blocked out the angered screams that gargled from his throat. In fact, in the back of her mind, she felt a perverse sort of pleasure as her mind grasped on to the thought that familiars could be made to feel pain after all. White smacked at her wildly, but each flaying punch only encouraged her to bite down harder.

Max felt her mouth fill with blood that wasn't her own. She wanted to vomit from the taste but refused to release her hold. This was her revenge. He had tried to defile her and she could never return the clock and pretend it didn't happen, but she could to some degree at least, seek compensation. Once she let go, he would make her beg for death. Therefore she intended to make the most of her last few moments.

Suddenly Max's body was racked with pain as White plunged a finger into the bullet wound in her thigh. The pain turned to searing agony as he twisted his hand and ploughed his finger further in, as if trying to dig out the lead that was still lodged within her flesh. Gasping from shock as a wave of nausea took full control of her body alongside of the unendurable pain, Max instantly released her hold on White's tongue. Her stomach heaving as she fought the urge to vomit.

White jumped back, cursing aloud as he wiped blood from his mouth. Striking Max hard across the face, he snarled as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut to hold in the scream which threatened to spill out from the deepest recess of her being.

Almost instantly, White had control of his own pain and so he waited for hers to ebb away. He wanted her eyes open so that she would see him coming when he stepped forward once more - to tear her apart.

Max dragged in long shuddering breaths as she fought to bring her mind and body under control. Forcing the pain from her mind, she turned to her captor and briefly took in the disarrayed sight of him before hissing, "I'm not your fucking wife."

The familiar's backwards glare was chilling as he crossed the room and grabbed a handful of paper towels from a dispenser on the wall. Slowly he approached, his manner entirely predatory as he dabbed tentatively at his mouth, cautiously checking that his tongue wasn't severed. Blood flowed freely from his mouth and ran in rivlets off his chin, dripping onto his clothing and collecting in a small pooling trail along the floor.

"Now look at what you did to my suit." Ames White's words were slurred as his tongue had begun to swell, but his voice was laced with venom non the less.

As he stepped up to her, Max returned his icy glare with her own, refusing to show signs of submission even as she knew what was to come. _Especially_ as she knew what was to come.

White delivered a backhanded blow across Max's face with all of the strength and anger one would expect of a familiar who had for the first time since childhood, been forced to experience pain. He expected to hear the satisfactory sound of bone splintering but scowled at the anticlimax of his actions. She was a transgenic after all. Raising his fist once more as she glowered up at him behind eyes that betrayed her fear and pain, White briefly savored the moment before he took his second swing. But as she at last flinched beneath him, the blow never came. Instead a loud knock at the door paused his fist in its decent.

"What!"

The word came out as a snarl as the door opened and a guard entered, the woman who White had planned to use as a bargaining tool, under his hold. Pushing her forward, the guard's eyes slid between White and Max, taking in the blood that still ran from White's mouth, lending him the deranged appearance a serial killer straight from a pre-pulse slasher movie.

The guard opened his mouth to speak, his lips slightly curled in disgust. White growled a warning for silence and waved him away before stepping forward to grab the woman by her hair. After watching with impatience as the guard exited the room, he turned to Max once more, although his words were directed to the woman who cringed beneath his hold.

"Now, before I kill you both, I want you to tell your _daughter_ just what you are. I want to see the repulsion in her eyes as she looks upon the woman who I'm _certain_ she has always longed to meet."

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"Mole stop!" The words were less of an exclamation and more of a shuddering out take of air. But it was enough to give the transhuman a moment of pause - moments before he would have ploughed Alec's skull through a concrete wall.

"Alec?" Mole pulled the helmet away to reveal a red-faced gasping X5, trying desperately to dredge up the ragged remnants of his self-pride and with it, a dry smile.

"Bro -" Straightening himself, Alec clapped Mole on the back. "Bro, you should have made the football team. I coulda hooked you up with some fine cheerleaders."

"Since when did Manticore have a football team?"

The presumably puzzled expression on Mole's features brought the cocky grin back to Alec's face once more. "Ah... we didn't. It just seemed the thing to say."

Nodding vaguely, Mole eyed his friend critically, wondering if he were suffering some kind of concussion. The last thing he needed was to babysit an X5. Lugging around the guy's dead clone had been bad enough. "You know, this wouldn't have happened if you'd taken off that damned helmet."

"Oh no my friend, this wouldn't have happened if _you'd_ kept to the plan!" Alec had recovered and was now throwing furtive glances around the corner as Mole began to drag the body out of sight.

"How was I to know it was you? You don't go sneaking up behind a guy!" Mole hissed the words, sounding decidedly reptilian. Being that he was, the noise wasn't entirely out of place. "While wearing a helmet! Where'd you get the hell'd you find that thing anyway?"

Having stashed the familiar's corpse, the two transgenics then continued to quietly bicker as Alec bound Mole's hands behind his back in a fake knot. They then began towards one of smaller buildings.

"Why this one Alec? Why not that one?" Mole was simply arguing for the sake of it now, the words coming out in a barely audible whisper as he tried to speak without moving his mouth.

"Because." Glancing about to ensure they weren't being too closely observed, Alec continued. "The main building would _appear _to be rigged with the best security. Therefore it would _seem _logical that Max would be kept there. But only an _idiot _would believe that ruse and go for the main building..."

The last sentence was said with a cocky laugh, before Alec paused to retrack his pattern of thought. "Whereas we know that White would have Max in a small building, with seemingly minimal security."

Alec grinned at the transhuman, his smile faltering beneath Moles blank stare as he realised his great idea held a few flaws in its logic.

"What are you on about Alec?" Mole scoffed, having come to the same conclusion as his pal.

"Well..." Alec continued slower this time, trying to map out his thoughts as he went. "He'd expect us to think that we'd know he would hide Max in a smaller building. So he'd think that we'd think he'd try and fool us by putting her in the big building after all. So we're going to go to the building that he expects us to not think that we think he thinks... "

Once again, Alec's words faded away. There was no sense trying to unravel the many possibilities of White's twisted mind.

"So then, shouldn't we look in a shed? Or an underground bunker? Or maybe a small hut in the forest?"

Alec sighed deeply in exasperation. Though who it was directed at, he wasn't sure. "Just shut up and act like a prisoner."

Pulling a seemingly unwilling Mole along with him, Alec headed towards a... medium sized building. Alec smiled optimistically as he let out a little chuckle. So far, this plan was going off without a hitch.

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"Tell the little transgenic whore just how _human_ the human side of her really is." White shoved the dark haired woman forward towards the bed.

Max was momentarily stunned to see her face stained with tears. But she smothered the surprise, hiding it beneath the customary scowl by which she greeted strangers and more often than not, friends and loved ones too.

Behind her, White's cruel mouth turned upwards in a faintly calculated smile. Max's gaze upon the woman hardened and she grudgingly pulled her stare back to the monster in the middle of the room. "Why don't you tell me where you've put my men White?"

Hesitating only for the barest moment, White held his arms out questioningly. "Gee 452. I'm surprised it's taken you this long to ask? And here I was thinking you no longer cared."

"Well I was kinda pre-occupied until now." She replied through clenched teeth, angrily eyeing both White and the woman who had remained at her side. The fact that the woman continued to stare as if she were the main attraction of an art exhibit did nothing to calm her already shattered nerves.

Ignoring her, White turned his attention back to the woman, withdrawing his gun as he stated in a slow cold voice. "I thought I gave you an order."

Turning frightened eyes from Max to White, and back to Max again, the woman made an attempt to speak but found that her voice had evaded her. Lunging forward, White struck her across the head with his gun, sending her flying across the room.

"Hey!" Max cried out in anger, wishing for nothing more than to break free so that she could choke the life out of the sadistic freak. She didn't give a flying fuck who the lady was, but she couldn't bear to lie helpless and watch her be beaten either.

"It's okay 452. She's a familiar." He dragged the woman to her feet, blood ran from a wound on her temple. "She can't feel pain."

It was true that she didn't seem to be hurting. It was more a blinding fear that was locked in her eyes. Max couldn't stop the queasy feeling in her stomach that accompanied the series of 'what if's' that had begun to charge through her mind. What if this lady really had spent her life locked away in the same institute as CJ? She surely looked messed up, it would take a lot to put a familiar in this kind of mental anxiety. And her own mother had been locked away...

"Look, I can believe some of your kind turn out lacking a bit in the brain department. I've met your brother remember? And well, there's _you_ as well to further back up that fact."

White ignored the remark and and merely dug his fingers into the woman's arm in an effort to control his growing anger and impatience.

"But right now, I really don't care why the hell you've dragged her in here. I want -"

"I really don't care about what you want 452!" White's voice thundered through the room. "_I_ what _you_ to to shut up and listen!"

Holding his gun to the woman's bleeding temple, he yelled. "Speak!"

"Sandeman..." With her voice trembling, the woman sought the words to stop Ames White from pulling the trigger. "I was on his side. Ag-against the Conclave. There were a few of us. For some of his experiments, he used our DNA. He wanted his transgenics to have natural immunity to a virus carried within a certain species of snake -"

"Yeah yeah yeah, she knows about the snakes." White pushed the gun further into the wound. "Cut the crap and get to the point."

"Most of the surrogate mothers were human. But I was asked to carry a foetus within me. I was young. I thought I wouldn't care. I didn't realise how having you would change everything I had ever..."

The woman's voice faded, her eyes filling with tears at the memory. Max's stony expression was unfaltering. She refused to believe that her genetics could be in any way tainted by the breeding cult.

"Oh look! It disgusts me too 452!" White sneered down at her. "Why do you think I hate your kind so much? You're an _insult_ to our race!"

Something broke within Max. If this woman lied, the raw hatred in White's voice told her that he at least believed her.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to take you away from it all. I should have tried harder." The woman's eyes begged her to understand.

The sudden ring of gunfire broke the uneasy silence and White released the woman and turned to the door as the guard burst in.

"Sir. 452 has visitors." The man waited in the doorway for instructions, his eyes darting down the hall towards the approaching source of noise.

White turned back to 452 and hissed. "Well they're going to fine one very dead transgenic waiting for them."

Without shifting his eyes from Max, he turned his semi-automatic towards the woman who claimed to be her mother and pulled the trigger. Smiling as the transgenic's eyes widened in horror as the dark haired woman collapse soundlessly to the floor, he then trained the gun on her.

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**TBC...**

**I hope you've made it this far! Stay tuned for the final chapter which is almost complete - I just have to figure out what's going on with Logan. I may have forgotten about him in this chapter...**


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